- Published on
luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
On Research
That magical feeling
When you’re researching a thing
And it leads you to somewhere unexpected
And that takes you down more hidden paths
To other things
The thrill of unearthing it all
And connecting the dots
And growing
What you know
When you’re researching a thing
And it leads you to somewhere unexpected
And that takes you down more hidden paths
To other things
The thrill of unearthing it all
And connecting the dots
And growing
What you know
- Published on
luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
Into the Woods
The air is chilly
But the sky is blue
And it’s almost warm in the sun
Into the woods it’s time to go
On a Sunday
To breathe in trees
The trees are bare
And beautiful
The air smells of earth
There are still leaves underfoot
Hundreds and thousands of
Brown leaves
Blanketing the forest floor
By the spring
They will have decayed
And broken down
Preparing the soil
For new shoots
The trees and earth are brown
Pale brown and chocolate brown
Bark brown and woody brown
Earthy brown and muddy brown
The brown of forest
But the moss
Oh the moss!
The moss is verdantly green
It glows on fallen logs
And stumps of once were trees
And appears as if out of nowhere
Surely it was made by fairies
Passing by
Between their homes
In the hidey holes of the tree trunks
And secret bowers in the undergrowth
Admire the moss
Keep watch for faeries, and
Breathe in trees.
But the sky is blue
And it’s almost warm in the sun
Into the woods it’s time to go
On a Sunday
To breathe in trees
The trees are bare
And beautiful
The air smells of earth
There are still leaves underfoot
Hundreds and thousands of
Brown leaves
Blanketing the forest floor
By the spring
They will have decayed
And broken down
Preparing the soil
For new shoots
The trees and earth are brown
Pale brown and chocolate brown
Bark brown and woody brown
Earthy brown and muddy brown
The brown of forest
But the moss
Oh the moss!
The moss is verdantly green
It glows on fallen logs
And stumps of once were trees
And appears as if out of nowhere
Surely it was made by fairies
Passing by
Between their homes
In the hidey holes of the tree trunks
And secret bowers in the undergrowth
Admire the moss
Keep watch for faeries, and
Breathe in trees.
- Published on
luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
Making
A stack of old magazines
And newspaper
Scissors
Glue
Cardboard
Cut out pictures
And words
Arrange
Re-arrange
Re-assemble
I feel like a kid again
Delightful.
And newspaper
Scissors
Glue
Cardboard
Cut out pictures
And words
Arrange
Re-arrange
Re-assemble
I feel like a kid again
Delightful.
- Published on
Luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
The Cumulus Cloud
You come up over the hill
And there
On the horizon below
Is a giant wall of
Puffy cumulus clouds
It surprises you that word
Cumulus
Where had it been living in your brain
To appear just like that
When was the last time you even thought about clouds?
Someone once told you
You would never remember the names of
Clouds
The way the peak glows
The dark ominous base
The immensity of it
The unexpectedness of it
Takes your breath away.
And there
On the horizon below
Is a giant wall of
Puffy cumulus clouds
It surprises you that word
Cumulus
Where had it been living in your brain
To appear just like that
When was the last time you even thought about clouds?
Someone once told you
You would never remember the names of
Clouds
The way the peak glows
The dark ominous base
The immensity of it
The unexpectedness of it
Takes your breath away.
- Published on
Luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
BC/AC
Today
In my acting job
Where I play a fake patient
To help train student doctors
I was diagnosed with cancer four times
By students learning
How to deliver bad news
For the first time
It was exhausting
And emotional
And strangely cathartic
Being here now
Giving real life feedback
This is what it's like when you first hear the word cancer
This is what it's like to hear lots of medical jargon
This is how much it means when the person delivering the worst news
Connects with you as a human being
The emergency room doctor
In New Milford Hospital who said to me
After the first round of what would be
Endless blood work
You're going to start to hear the word "cancer"
He was direct
But he was kind
I think of the family and friends
I've lost to stupid fucking cancer
Four in the past year alone
Ruth, Erin, Miren, Miguel
It's a club we never wanted to be part of
But once you're in
You're in
Life becomes B.C. and A.C.
Before Cancer
After Cancer
And today
I can feel thankful
That I survived
And even though I won't become a nurse
Or a doctor
I can give something back
So that the next person
Who has to be told
You're going to start to hear the word cancer
Will be met with humanity.
In my acting job
Where I play a fake patient
To help train student doctors
I was diagnosed with cancer four times
By students learning
How to deliver bad news
For the first time
It was exhausting
And emotional
And strangely cathartic
Being here now
Giving real life feedback
This is what it's like when you first hear the word cancer
This is what it's like to hear lots of medical jargon
This is how much it means when the person delivering the worst news
Connects with you as a human being
The emergency room doctor
In New Milford Hospital who said to me
After the first round of what would be
Endless blood work
You're going to start to hear the word "cancer"
He was direct
But he was kind
I think of the family and friends
I've lost to stupid fucking cancer
Four in the past year alone
Ruth, Erin, Miren, Miguel
It's a club we never wanted to be part of
But once you're in
You're in
Life becomes B.C. and A.C.
Before Cancer
After Cancer
And today
I can feel thankful
That I survived
And even though I won't become a nurse
Or a doctor
I can give something back
So that the next person
Who has to be told
You're going to start to hear the word cancer
Will be met with humanity.
- Published on
Luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
D.E.A.R Time
"Dear"
From the old English deore or diore or dyre
Depending on whether you were Anglican or West Saxon
Or deurja in the Proto-Germanic, diuri in Old Saxon
Dyrr in Old Norse and diore in Old Frisian
All meaning:
Precious, valuable
Costly, expensive
Glorious
Noble
Loved, beloved
Regarded with affection
And sometimes it can be a bit snide
Like "Okay dear"
But here, I mean it nicely
Darling, precious, cherished, loved
In primary school
One of my teachers
Had a regularly instituted policy called
D.E.A.R Time
Drop Everything and Read
Sometime in the day
She would announce
"D.E.A.R Time!"
And we would stop whatever it was that we were doing
And choose a book
And read -
Isn't it nice that read and dear have the same letters?
And it was my favorite part of the day
(Though back then I would've spelled it "favourite"
And "spelled" "spelt"
The Great Reading and Writing Challenge
Australia v. USA)
I've missed reading books
Reading for fun
Just sitting and reading and not doing anything else
Too much social media
Too much work
Too much being online
Too many other Things To Do
So I'm bringing back D.E.A.R Time
The past few days it happens to be around 11am
I grab my book
Snuggle up under a blanket
Set the alarm for fifteen minutes
And just read
(Am currently devouring Index,
Delicious)
When work picks up again
It's going to be harder to maintain
D.E.A.R Time
Time is precious
Time is money
Time is of the essence
But I will try because
That time is
Precious, valuable
Costly, expensive
Glorious
Noble
Loved, beloved
Regarded with affection
Dear.
From the old English deore or diore or dyre
Depending on whether you were Anglican or West Saxon
Or deurja in the Proto-Germanic, diuri in Old Saxon
Dyrr in Old Norse and diore in Old Frisian
All meaning:
Precious, valuable
Costly, expensive
Glorious
Noble
Loved, beloved
Regarded with affection
And sometimes it can be a bit snide
Like "Okay dear"
But here, I mean it nicely
Darling, precious, cherished, loved
In primary school
One of my teachers
Had a regularly instituted policy called
D.E.A.R Time
Drop Everything and Read
Sometime in the day
She would announce
"D.E.A.R Time!"
And we would stop whatever it was that we were doing
And choose a book
And read -
Isn't it nice that read and dear have the same letters?
And it was my favorite part of the day
(Though back then I would've spelled it "favourite"
And "spelled" "spelt"
The Great Reading and Writing Challenge
Australia v. USA)
I've missed reading books
Reading for fun
Just sitting and reading and not doing anything else
Too much social media
Too much work
Too much being online
Too many other Things To Do
So I'm bringing back D.E.A.R Time
The past few days it happens to be around 11am
I grab my book
Snuggle up under a blanket
Set the alarm for fifteen minutes
And just read
(Am currently devouring Index,
Delicious)
When work picks up again
It's going to be harder to maintain
D.E.A.R Time
Time is precious
Time is money
Time is of the essence
But I will try because
That time is
Precious, valuable
Costly, expensive
Glorious
Noble
Loved, beloved
Regarded with affection
Dear.
- Published on
Luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
Tonight the Sky is Gloriously Pink
Tonight the sky is gloriously pink
And you think
To yourself
As you're walking along
That you can't possibly write about
A sunset
In a blog about inspiring things
What a cliché
And then you think
How can it be that the
Twirling of the earth
At just so an angle
At just so a distance from
The largest star in our neck of the galactic woods
Allows you to exist at all
And the perception of that
Star sinking below the horizon
Is just that
Perception
Because the sun itself
Is not going any where
It is you
Tiny ant on a tiny marble
Who is spinning
And the fact that the "rising" and "setting"
Of the sun has become so
Every day (haha)
That we dismiss the radiance of
Pinks and purples and oranges and reds and
Rays of light
As cliché
Predictable, overused, commonplace
Is truly mind boggling
And so
Tonight the sky is gloriously pink.
And you think
To yourself
As you're walking along
That you can't possibly write about
A sunset
In a blog about inspiring things
What a cliché
And then you think
How can it be that the
Twirling of the earth
At just so an angle
At just so a distance from
The largest star in our neck of the galactic woods
Allows you to exist at all
And the perception of that
Star sinking below the horizon
Is just that
Perception
Because the sun itself
Is not going any where
It is you
Tiny ant on a tiny marble
Who is spinning
And the fact that the "rising" and "setting"
Of the sun has become so
Every day (haha)
That we dismiss the radiance of
Pinks and purples and oranges and reds and
Rays of light
As cliché
Predictable, overused, commonplace
Is truly mind boggling
And so
Tonight the sky is gloriously pink.
- Published on
Luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
Alchemy
In an old faerie magazine
There is a recipe for
A scented brew
To warm the house
Spiced with cranberries and cinnamon and orange and cloves
You obtain a parcel of cranberries
And discover another recipe
Take one cup of sugar
And one cup of water
And stir together over heat
Until the water bubbles
Add three cups of cranberries
Bubble bubble for ten minutes
The concoction is transformed by the heat
The berries pop and dissolve
And the water thickens into
Liquid rubies
An ancient alchemy
Usually practiced in the
Waning months of the year
It’s the new year now
A cold and wet January night
And the zingy sweet syrup
Gives a glow.
There is a recipe for
A scented brew
To warm the house
Spiced with cranberries and cinnamon and orange and cloves
You obtain a parcel of cranberries
And discover another recipe
Take one cup of sugar
And one cup of water
And stir together over heat
Until the water bubbles
Add three cups of cranberries
Bubble bubble for ten minutes
The concoction is transformed by the heat
The berries pop and dissolve
And the water thickens into
Liquid rubies
An ancient alchemy
Usually practiced in the
Waning months of the year
It’s the new year now
A cold and wet January night
And the zingy sweet syrup
Gives a glow.
- Published on
luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
Patti LuPone: 54 Below Livestream
What a thrill
To see a bona fide
Broadway legend
Do their thing
With such joy
And passion
And commitment
To the words
And story-telling
And, of course, musicality.
To be able to watch it from home
And feel safe
And still be a part of it
I’ll drink to that. 🍸
To see a bona fide
Broadway legend
Do their thing
With such joy
And passion
And commitment
To the words
And story-telling
And, of course, musicality.
To be able to watch it from home
And feel safe
And still be a part of it
I’ll drink to that. 🍸
- Published on
luminescence: the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated.
LuMinEssence: the mission of finding light in the dark.
Black Dog
The field covered in grey foggy mist
And bounding through it
My black dog
Chasing a bright orange ball.
And bounding through it
My black dog
Chasing a bright orange ball.