Author: The Inconstant Muse

Taking on the world & our collective experience, one stumble after another.
My sick friends make my sickness feel more friendly
Community

May’s Knees are Bone: Wednesday Wanderers

May’s knees are bone-on-bone. Each step is agony. Carl just learned his unabated fatigue is rooted in metastasized cancer. Levon‘s eyesight is going, throwing off his balance. Denny just learned she has a lethal heart condition. My colitis rages. Medications, treatments, tests. We are cheerful people, granted some nascent grace with which to face each new day, even when the day greets us with unavoidable … Continue reading May’s Knees are Bone: Wednesday Wanderers

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The phone calls I wait for are from doctors. More accurately, I wait to hear from nurses, schedulers or whichever office member drew the short straw. I wait to hear whether new tests are needed. I wait to hear whether my insurer agrees. I wait to hear test results. I wait. On call.
Words

On Call

My oldest daughter’s current job includes several days of being ‘on call’, days she must keep her phone and herself ready to go in to work.  She both dreads and hopes for the call.  I can relate. The phone calls I wait for are from doctors. More accurately, I wait to hear from nurses, schedulers or whichever office member drew the short straw. I wait … Continue reading On Call

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My garden in bloom in May in Port Townsend
Community, Home

Garden News: May at Lawrence and Adams

I’ve torn up my three-year-old garden. Still it offers beauty. Bold blue delphinium are pushing five-foot stalks upward. At their feet, alyssum pours itself into strawberry plants that pose tiny white flowers and green berries waiting for a break in our cloud cover. Canna unfurl their blood-red leaves. Sedum crawls between the slim trunks of rhododendron bursting with pinks and purples. My home is on … Continue reading Garden News: May at Lawrence and Adams

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Community, Words

Gardening

I have to garden. For me gardening is elemental. It’s about immersing myself in the dirt, air, and phenomena of nature. I read about plants, compost, insects. But that’s not the real learning my garden yields. My garden is a classroom about all life, an exhibition on cycles of inception to decay to rebirth, a primer on behaviors and adaptations, a refuge of revelation. Whatever … Continue reading Gardening

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Incredibly lucky to be a citizen of a democratic republic, you cannot take time off from being an American. Popular claims that the ‘American Dream’ is about owning a home or rising in your job is rubbish. The American Dream is, at its core, having personal freedom and a stake in your nation’s conduct and character. You must vote. It’s your greatest responsibility. Sticky post
Community, Words

Oh, Teacup, How do you Vote?

Blow it off? Wait until you’re not so busy? Too confusing? It’s all rigged anyway? Whoa, kiddo. No! You need to vote! Incredibly lucky to be a citizen of a democratic republic, you cannot take time off from being an American. Popular claims that the ‘American Dream’ is about owning a home or rising in your job is rubbish. The American Dream is, at its … Continue reading Oh, Teacup, How do you Vote?

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Shrinking my footprint means letting go of my misplaced sense of self-worth: Things do not define my value.
LHBB

Shrinking my Footprint

The LHBB (Little House Big Build) is all about shrinking my footprint. Both my conscience and life stage have led me to understand it’s time to reduce my material presence. What does that mean? My ethics are rooted in conservation of available resources; they underpin my passion for saving and restoring old, historic properties. But old homes inevitably require more energy and product to properly … Continue reading Shrinking my Footprint

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