Daydreaming on the Porch
by Oswego
Entries 519
Page 15 of 21
Autumn
Autumn looked at the shadow of a still-summer oak tree and said, “It’s time.”
This is another story from the memory vault of my past, which I am continually opening in these pandemic days when I seem to have much more than the normal amount of time for self-reflection. M...
Parting the veil of tears
The kiss of the sun for pardon, The song of the birds for mirth,– One is nearer God’s heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth. Dorothy Frances Gurney If we could see the miracle of a sing...
Agent Orange
Agent Orange has now spread a toxic cloud that has seeped into every crevice of the country. His followers have been gassed up close. The rats will soon be jumping overboard. Stephen Miller an...
Caregiving 101: Take care of yourself
…When caregivers continually devote most of their time, energy, to a person with dementia, it’s easy to lose perspective. Because thy are so intently focused on the needs of their lives one, car...
Rest In Peace, Johnny Nash
I’m sad tonight to learn that we have lost a beautiful soul in the world of music. Johnny Nash passed away at the age of 80. His legendary song of hope, “I can See Clearly Now,” is my favorite...
Photography: Mystery, beauty, memories and realities
Photography is fascinating to me because it’s both descriptive and symbolic at the same time. Descriptive because it shows you something that looks like the world and symbolic because the best ph...
Me and my shadow
Over they years on my walks, whether it’s along the streets of my neighborhood or in parks, gardens and nature preserves, I often look to the side on sunny late afternoons and see my shadow walk...
You can’t go home again
When the pandemic came abruptly into our lives this past February, It was not a very difficult process for me to self quarantine. I was used to living alone, and although I hadn’t been living in...
September Song
It’s nearly the end of September and I can’t let this strange month in the year of the pandemic slip by without recalling two of my favorite songs, each bringing back so many memories from long a...
Time capsules and disappearing civilizations
Remember the infamous Y2K bug which would cause all the world’s clocks and calendars to get messed up? Computers would go haywire and there would be chaos unleashed on the planet. I grimly wait...
Lost in solitude
It’s been 15 years since I wrote a poem, and that’s way too long. Every bit of poetry I wrote, I posted at Open Diary those many years ago. Some of you who read my diary at OD from the beginni...
Why I must write
I recently had an opportunity to think hard about why I write. Simply answered, it’s because I always have liked to write, and for years I wrote for a living when I was a newspaper reporter and...
Charleston: A walk in the historic district
It finally turned mercifully cooler the past couple of days. A huge relief from days of heat index readings of 105-111. Fortunately, for the past 25 years I’ve lived in one of America’s most b...
When will the storm be over?
And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you co...
Sharing the beauty and wonder of Nature
It’s a quiet and very relaxing Labor Day, a holiday I as a single person and wannabe-hermit never in my life cared about. For me Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend are merely symbolic: the begin...
The other side of depression
I often think back over my life to a particular year that that was so life-shattering and life-altering that I was cast into a pit of despair like nothing I’ve ever known. And later, that same ...
Old man’s fantasy
Just about every evening now during this unending Age of the Coronavirus, I emerge from my cozy sanctuary, get in the car, and drive a short distance to a park along the Ashley River. For years...
Survey time: “To dream the impossible dream” or not?
Note: The pandemic does strange things to you. I’ve only done a couple of surveys, but a global disease conflagration makes me more likely to want to do them here because I have a lot of time...
Depression and mental health in the Age of the Pandemic. Part 1
Despite glimmers of hope for a vaccine during this pandemic season, and the fact that the economy seems to be crawling back ever so slightly from the precipice of its five-month free fall of lost...
Let Your Light Shine
It’s been seven months now since Mom passed. I still feel the loss very deeply. The last few months were very hard on me, but despite her dementia she held onto her faith. This is what carried...
Caregiving 101: when patience is pushed to the limit
After caring for my mother for ten years , I learned many important lessons about diabetes, dementia and the extreme amounts of love, forbearance and patience that are required. I had a lot of pa...
Songs for terrible times
The year 1969 was one of those pivotal years in my life. I graduated from high school for one thing. The first half of the year was the best time I had ever had in because I was on the staff of...
A YouTube hit makes you feel so good
Okay, all you YouTubers out there. Buckle your seatbelts. The latest phenomenon to rocket to fame are two twin 21-year-old brothers from Gary, Indiana — Tim and Fred Williams. This is a classi...
Aging gracefully? No, realistically
Warning! This is entry is not for the faint of of heart, or for those who look in the mirror and turn away with a twinge of horror from the sight of wrinkles and sagging skin. Nor is it for tho...
Book Description
Short essays from the interior of my life.