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Archive for the ‘change’ Category

- At long last: grackles

At long last — weeks after I had given up the hope that I would see them this year — they returned.
As I stood at the kitchen sink, drank from a cup, and stared absent-mindedly into the backyard, I faintly heard a chorus of chattering. I heard it before I recognized it.
My attention tracked the [...]

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- It’s Sunday.

And this is rest and spirituality enough for me.

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- Goodbye, summer

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- Meager light

Photosynthesis, which occurs in plants, algae, and some bacteria, uses energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds. This is food, and plants need food to grow.
If you live in Massachusetts, you may have noticed that there has been what I would call NO SUNSHINE in all of June. Well, maybe there [...]

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- Incomprehensible

The June 13th issue of The Economist is on the kitchen table, and Grace, who loves magazine covers, is examining it. I’m puttering around the kitchen. She asks, finally, “What does it mean?” So I lean over her shoulder and take a stab at explaining the visual metaphor: “Right now, the world is experiencing huge [...]

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On Saturday night in Berkeley, after trying (without reservations) to eat at Chez Panisse (the upstairs, less expensive café part), Betsy and I walked along the block for a while before deciding on Café Gratitude, a raw food vegan restaurant that practices sacred commerce.
Our young server, Natalie, with her bangs and long black braid, bright [...]

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- Dehumanized

Yesterday I graded papers at my dining room table all day, and then last night too. I had to push myself: it’s a special challenge to stay motivated and energized lately about teaching tasks that are difficult even in normal times. (And these are not. As one of my MIT colleagues wrote to me recently [...]

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- A huge disconnect

There is much beauty in the world and its people.
(Dear Reader, I beg your patience. In this post I’m going to attempt to start at beauty and end up at crisis. At this moment of beginning, I’m not sure I’ll find the path.)
There is much beauty in the world and its people. That is what [...]

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- Pink slipped, again

Last week I had a meeting with my boss, and I learned that my job in the writing program at MIT is ending with this semester. Others in the program, too, have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced.
Three years ago, a little later in the spring, I heard similar news from my boss [...]

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- Hail to the, er, crochet

I’ve been wanting to put a photo of President Obama on my blog. However, I do have some editorial policies (admittedly, my own) that I follow, and his photographic image doesn’t really fit. He’s not very Leaf: not a gardener, is he? I suppose I could say he’s kinda Word; I mean, he’s a great [...]

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