Oswego
Entries 558
Page 22 of 23
Summer reverie revisited in Daydreaming on the Porch
There is probably no more beautiful river in South Carolina than the pristine Edisto River, whose watershed runs through a long swath of central South Carolina. I’ve long been intrigued and begu...
The voyage of life in Daydreaming on the Porch
As I approach retirement, I find myself looking back on the past more and more often, thinking of my friends, jobs and careers with increasing emotion, even pathos. There is something quite poi...
The perils and promises of nostalgia in Daydreaming on the Porch
“Today, researchers view nostalgia – ‘a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past’ – far more positively than their 19th-century forebears. Studies show that nostalgia can...
Dipping into the memory vault again in Daydreaming on the Porch
“And over the course of a lifetime, we forage, root and rummage around in our stuff, because that is part of what it means to be human. We treasure…“ Dominique Browning New York Times, May 29, 20...
Dementia Journal, April 29, 2015 in Daydreaming on the Porch
Mom’s dementia is getting worse, and she is more frail than ever. I constantly worry about her falling even though someone always holds onto her when she goes anywhere in the house. Her short-t...
Dementia Journal -- March, 2015 in Daydreaming on the Porch
March 4, 2015 I keep telling myself I need to write in this journal more often, but the subject is painful to explore and hard to recall, ironically enough, because there’s a steady drumbeat of i...
Memories of college in a file folder in Daydreaming on the Porch
Somehow over the years, despite all my moves and jarring dislocations, I’ve managed to hold onto a number of boxes of precious memorabilia, going back to the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. These include l...
Murals in Daydreaming on the Porch
I love murals on buildings in towns and cities and really enjoy photographing them. Charleston has not had many, if any, of these most striking examples of street art. But lately, they seem to b...
Home in Daydreaming on the Porch
Quite a number of years ago, in February 1999 to be exact, I wrote an entry about “home” in my first online journal. I had not yet joined Open Diary, but that was soon to come a few months late...
Dementia journal, Nov. 19, 2014 in Daydreaming on the Porch
One of the hardest things about caring for an aging parent with dementia, day in and day out, year after year, is the constant awareness and strain of coming face to face with not only my loved o...
Autumn is in the air in Daydreaming on the Porch
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;… To Autumn by John Keats “Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We’ll smell smoke then and feel an u...
To a mockingbird in Daydreaming on the Porch
“Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art…“ “To a Skylark” By Percy Bysshe Shelley It has b...
The solitary life in Daydreaming on the Porch
“We must reserve a little back-shop, all our own, entirely free, wherein to establish our true liberty and principal retreat and solitude.” Montaigne “No one will ever uphold the capacities of hi...
Trying to make sense of the past in Daydreaming on the Porch
One of the inevitabilities of aging, for me at least, has been a tendency in my early 60s to more often than ever revisit places, times, events and memories of schools, jobs and people I knew an...
Friends in Daydreaming on the Porch
“....If you count on other people to be faithful friends, online or in real life, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. Only a precious few stay the course with you. That’s been the case for m...
Dementia journal, Aug. 14, 2014 in Daydreaming on the Porch
"Am I okay?" "Yes, Mom, you're okay," I reply somewhat wearily. "Is everything okay?" "Yes, Mom." This goes on and on. She is okay, as far as I know. I checked her vitals, gave her insulin...
On the idealization of childhood in Daydreaming on the Porch
"...I think that no experience which I have today comes up to, or is comparable with, the experiences of my boyhood. And not only this is true, but as far back as I can remember I have unconscio...
There are a lot of things New Orleans and Charleston have in common: both are flat and at or near, or even below sea level, in the case of New Orleans. Both have a hot, subtropical climate in ...
Sometimes the simplest words are best in Daydreaming on the Porch
"Give me a road away from the crowd, Away from the noise and the race, And let me wander the quiet trail To a different time and place, Where miles are measured in valleys, And birches point t...
Sanctuaries for the soul in Daydreaming on the Porch
I was telling some one the other day that it is Nature -- for example, the solitude and peace found among the paths and trails at the gardens and parks I frequent -- that most fully restores my ...
Endings will become beginnings in Daydreaming on the Porch
One thing I am struck with these days is how complicated and rushed life seems to be. I know deep down that I can stop, slow down and concentrate on being in the moment, and then life seems to ...
The stillness of the deep countryside in Daydreaming on the Porch
"...I love driving from Sumter to Charleston... I avoid the interstates as much as possible taking less traveled highways through coastal plain farmland and some very pretty countryside. Big, ro...
Rains bring especially verdant Spring in Daydreaming on the Porch
It's astonishing and wondrous now to see how green and lush everything is now.. The trees are at that peak of new green that so refreshes the spirit. So also, the woods and garden at Magnolia P...
The annual Spring azalea pilgrimmage in Daydreaming on the Porch
Each Spring starting in mid-March, I begin my annual photo pilgrimmage at the gardens and parks in Charleston where this most magnificent flowering shrub dazzles the eyes with its brilliant pinks...
Sitting by the stream in Daydreaming on the Porch
"Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen." From "Open House for Butterflies" by Ruth Krauss Many years ago when I lived in Columbia, SC, I had an apartment surrounded by woods...
