A Witch in the Wardrobe
Things I have learned from pruning my entire wardrobe over the last three days: 1. I never wear turtlenecks–so claustrophobic!–though I periodically think buying them is a good idea. 2. I never wear pure wool–so itchy!–though people gift me with it all the time. 3. I’ve kept one prized garment of each of my past lovers, none of which I feel the need to keep anymore. (Neither the lovers nor the garments.) Continue Reading →
Scorpio’s Splintering Ceilings
Venus in Scorpio, Jupiter in Scorpio, Sun in Scorpio, new moon in Scorpio. With all these planets in the sign of reckoning and power, you can feel the ground shifting beneath your feet even if you don’t believe in astrology. In our individual lives, in our country, in the heavens themselves, what lurks below has been exploding in our faces for months now. But with Scorpio now looming in planets of love and manifestation, identity and emotionality, we’re finally seeing the power balance shift—-to glimpse the fetid core of patriarchy itself. Continue Reading →
Amazing Grace
Daily prayer.
As I type this, Grace is sitting on my legs and purring loudly enough that I can not only hear it but feel it. This is momentous because I spent the entire day looking for her while I was supposed to be packing for New York. She disappeared this morning and, because I’d left the front door open while moving things back and forth from my car, I began to fear that she was gone forever. If she had fled into the environs surrounding this Truro house, chances were high that she would be lost or severely injured. All kinds of animals live in these woods–coyotes included—and she’s never spent any time outside since we rescued her on the streets of Brooklyn when she was three weeks old. She was by herself, eating trash and hiding behind a stoop. The size of my palm, she was so little that she normally would not yet have been weaned. I believe that this is why she remains a permakitten. Like me, she was never safe as a child.
At first I assumed my little one had just found a new hiding place. But after after a few hours, I started to get nervous. I turned off all the electronics in the house and sang “Love You Madly,” the Ella and Duke song to which she has come running since she first became my charge eight years go. But she didn’t come. I turned the house upside down and still didn’t find her. And then I started to imagine the upheaval had so upset her that she’d run outside and had gotten lost. Maybe eaten. Continue Reading →