Many of my friends practice yoga. I never did. It’s just not my thing. Years ago, I used to run, and play volleyball and basketball. I was younger then. Now I prefer fast-walking, or taking an aerobics or spin class at the gym. My default mode when I exercise, like when I teach, is high … Read moreMorning Exercises: Stillness
It’s always dark when the dogs wake me in the morning, and switching to Daylight Savings Time hasn’t changed anything. I’m not ready to rise, but dogs are creatures of habit and need to get moving in the morning. I have a few minutes between when they shake themselves awake and make their way to … Read moreMorning Exercises: Movement
“If poets ruled the planet, we’d still be living in caves, and we wouldn’t care about anything except writing.” —Janet R. Kirchheimer This was just one quotable line from Janet’s response to an email I sent to her, in which I confessed that I’d been writing poetry to procrastinate grading papers and answering emails. Janet, … Read moreMorning Exercises: Poetry
“Our life is a walk in the night, we know not how great the distance to the dawn that awaits us. And the path is strewn with stumbling blocks and our bodies are grown tyrannous with weeping yet we lift our feet. We lift our feet.” —Rachel Kadish in The Weight of Ink, p. 51 … Read moreWalk around the Block
Many of you heard or read the story of my fall. Not the season; the incident involving two dogs, one leash, a fire hydrant and Hailey. In that story, I try to emphasize the uplifting encounter with Hailey and downplay the injury to my thumb. In this installment of the story, I will also attempt … Read moreThumbs Up for Resurgeons