I was forbidden from watching television after school before my parents came home. My only choices were doing homework or doing chores. This meant scrubbing toilets to avoid solving geometric proofs, and vice versa.
Continue reading Sweet! You’ve Got MailThis morning I enjoyed a cup of coffee on our new deck while I journaled. I’ve been wanting to do this for years. First we didn’t have a deck, then we did, then I had a lot of reasons keeping me from doing exactly the things I wanted a desk for.
It was as much a revelation for what was not in the quiet (leaf blowers, neighbors’ music, infernal skeet shooting) as for what was: chatty blue jays descanting over a steady cicada rhythm. Even the traffic from the highway a few miles away, rather than an intrusion, was a pleasant reminder that life is going on in some capacity during pandemic.
Continue reading Outdoor Coffee QuietYesterday I participated in a Zoom. I find them exhausting as I try to focus on the speaker, yet cannot help but analyze my own face during conversation. Am I always so animated? Is it annoying? Does it seem insincere? Just what is going on with my forehead? Remembering the purpose of the meeting, I return focus to where it belongs. No one should be able to hover in front of their own face during a conversation, meta-analyzing themselves. It must affect the quality of these virtual interactions.
Continue reading Time, the Prankster God
Jackie Pick 