I am not—I think I am not—afraid of dying. ~William Maxwell, Nearing 90 . . . Missing cat, panic, braindead, fruitflies, envy. Problems. As a psychotherapist, I worked for years to help people solve their problems. Then I learned that, according to Buddha, we all have 83 problems. Everyone: Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, even the […]
Near Joshua Tree National Monument, a woman lounges with her son on a small concrete patio outside the yellow bungalow at the end of Wagon Wheel Road. Their aluminum chairs face the arroyo, where boulders like the backs of elephants—august, copious, renowned—cast cartoonishly large shadows. A beat-up card table bears the remains of the woman’s […]
I’d just started sun salutations when I spotted it under the wax myrtle. A slumped rubbery thing, flat tire. Except it was three slumped rubbery things painted like a giraffe, all stacked up, glistening—a giant snake is what it was. Ever stuck a fork in the toaster? I kicked over my tea and bolted up […]
WHERE LUCY WENT Pinckney Wildlife Refuge. The thick dark enveloped Lucy as though welcoming her home, and her mind quieted. Without light, she could smell: pluff mud’s salty sparks, shell road’s chalky cornstarch. At Ibis Pond: grassy tang, earthy algae, something ammoniac; fresh water’s clean scent, and, barely discernible beneath piney loblollies and eggy […]