When our friend Mary died less than a week ago, her husband Andy shared that her mantra for the summer was "no time to hurry." I cannot stop thinking of this or about Mary, a human of great grace, good humor, shining presence, and easy conversation. Time can feel incomprehensible, especially when it comes to death. Here was Mary, chatting amiably with me earlier this summer at one of the downtown protests. There was Mary walking down the steps from her porch, newspaper in hand and wide smile on| CMG
Dear wonderful readers,I've missed you lately and have missed posting as regularly as I wish. There's so much to say and even more to understand or at least listen to in search of understanding. Speaking of listening without always understanding, there's also the story I've been writing (as my way of listening) about our 35 years aiming to save the land where we live, which overlapped with particularly rare cancer of the eye.The Magic Eye: The Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of An| CMG
At the tail-end of a bad bout of the flu I realized what life wants to be -- or wants me to be -- now: not just present with people I love, but present without being rushed. Especially when diagnoses go south, death takes over the narrative, and what once held everything together is nowhere in sight.Having cleared my calendar because of Sir Influenza, while keeping my commitment to finish planning my dear friend Kat's celebration of life and staying in touch with a close friend in the hospital,| CMG
I'm just back from Brave Voice, deep in the Flint Hills of Kansas -- here is a piece I wrote there, initially for my Patreon followers. May we all find the retreats we need.Here is the view from where I am right now at the 20th annual Brave Voice retreat. This retreat, which I lead with singer-songwriter Kelley Hunt, has been a mainstay of creative inspiration, jump-starting many people's writing, music, and other arts over the years. As Dianna, one of our long-time participants says, "It's the| CMG
My new book, The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety, is hitting the streets and bookshelves near you soon, starting with a July 17th launch at the Raven Bookstore (but wait, the books just arrived, and you can get your copy at the Raven or through this site). How did this happen? Read on, friends!1. Find out you have a cancer you never heard of so didn’t suspect, and in your eye no less! Luckily, you grabbed your notebook when the ophthalmologist said the...| CMG
In the face of so much happening so fast, it's hard to know what to do, especially when cruelty is at the wheel. So it's no wonder that I...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
In the very long year that was January, Cindy, my acupuncturist, told me a story: another client of hers, when distraught about the election and the then-just-starting barrage of awful things happening, realized her job now was to "go outside and look for God."Those words took my breath away, then gave it back, and it keeps helping me breathe. Whether you believe or don't believe in God, Gods or Goddesses, the Great Spirit, Allah, Buddha, or any other embodiment of the sacred, we all -- jeez, I| CMG
I've been thinking lately about how we can be refuges of acceptance, calm,and love for each other. After all, it's been and it is a helluva time (and time out of time). Personally, I've lost two very close friends this winter, and politically, the speed and depth of loss, chaos, and uncertainty is painful, disorienting, and terrifying.When I think of someone who truly embodies the best we can be for each other, I think of my friend Jack Winerock. No wonder then that to celebrate his 80th birthda| CMG
Determination, kindness, curiosity, and presence. That was Kat, so it was no wonder that, despite carrying a benign tumor in her brain lining and not feeling all that well that day, she showed up at for lunch on my December birthday, thanks to her will and her husband Danny’s considerable help. It turned out the impact of the tumor was anything but benign. That was the last time I saw her conscious, but we go way back. In a sense, Kat – along with other close, early life-long friends I m...| CMG
"You'll be happy to hear we didn't kill a dear," my son Daniel's friend Dan told me two weeks ago when the two Daniels hauled their bright..| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Happy birthday for a 2nd time On Christmas night, the first night of Hanukkah, and my sister-in-law Karen's birthday, we light a bunch of...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Ronda reading at the 2014 Power of Words conference. Photo by Stephen Locke. When Ronda's son Scott called me Monday with the news of her...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
"How are we? How do we think we are? We are just waiting to die," Nanny (my grandmother) would tell me when I asked how she and Papa (my...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Just about everyone I know is carrying a backpack full of anxiety, dread, despair, or anger, sometimes weighing into terror or rage. We...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
On Friday night, I shared this poem at Shabbat services at my synagogue. As I read it, I remembered how, when I wrote this some years...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
“Don’t read the news, at least not the feeding frenzy of speculation about the election,” I keep telling myself, and for good reason....| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Lately, with all this American political intensity, I'm antsy. I'm also not alone in this, and like others, I need distractions,...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
One October week: Hurricane Milton, Northern Lights, a colonoscopy, Yom Kippur, Louise Erdrich in town, Comet Purple Mountain, and the...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
That's what I say to my friend Joy on the phone while we each surveyed our overflowing calendars for open spaces to meet. Over the last...| Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Last week, we signed a pile of papers -- the last of three closings to save the land where we live. The first closing -- Dec. 15, 2020 -- was for us to buy the 130 acres that has been part of my husband Ken's family for five generations and central to our dreams for close to 40 years. The second closing -- June 13, 2024 -- was to give our development rights on the land to the Kansas Land Trust which, in turn, will protect this land as a natural habitat in perpetuity. The third closing -- Aug. 5,| CMG
