grief | just ponderin'

… on sticking the landing

March 24, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

I don’t usually write about news stories. I have… when they’ve struck my fancy. I wrote about the Batkid based on what I’d seen in the news, and I remember writing about a certain Town Meeting for my soon-to-be home-town. But mostly, I don’t write about news stories. But today I’m gonna. Because of one Ms. Bauerschmidt. Miss Norma. I spent the morning with her. Well, her and her son and his wife, and also Ringo (their dog)… All of whom I now think of […]

Categories: Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', musings, secrets to happiness, Uncategorized, unique observation • Tags: aging, Driving Miss Norma, grief, humor, joy, just ponderin', Miss Norma, musings, photography, secrets to happiness

… on a couple of toasts

March 12, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

Once upon a time Delia Ephron wrote a book called Hanging Up, and then her sister Nora produced it into a movie. It wasn’t a super blockbuster or anything, but it’s one of those movies that I tend to play when it comes on one of the bazillion cable channels, often when it is already in the middle or end of its little guide rectangle. Doesn’t matter, I’ve seen it before. Some people like music in the background of their daily […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', memories, musings, Old Yankee Man, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: grief, humor, joy, just ponderin', musings, old yankee man, photography

… on quietly ponderin’ an old man’s shovel

January 8, 2017 by Lisa Dingle

That shovel above did not belong to the Old Yankee Man, no way… because plastic. But seeing it there, outside the back door this morning, reminded me of him. The Old Yankee Man had an old, rusted, steel shovel… the kind I told him he could not use on the new bluestone paths and patios… which was why we bought the plastic ones. Didn’t matter. He used his old shovel on the new bluestone paths and patios all the time, when he thought […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', memories, musings, Old Yankee Man, secrets to happiness, unique observation • Tags: death of a loved one, death of a parent, grief, Grieving, just ponderin', old yankee man, photography, secrets to happiness

… on an opening

October 26, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

One of the most fascinating aspects of humans being is the fact that we dance in not just one, but a garden of emotions and perceptions in each and every situation we encounter. And this was what I was thinking when I sat down the other day to write about, you know, the skunk thing. That particular happening – Blaze and Marshal being sprayed – was a riot. I was a riot, exclaiming and running and measuring and pouring and scrubbing and […]

Categories: dogs, Feel good stuff, just ponderin', marshal dillon dingle, memories, musings, omd! (oh my dog(s)!), secrets to happiness • Tags: dogs, german shepherd, grief, just ponderin', pet loss

… on life’s strangeness and wonder

February 18, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Even when I’m ‘okay’ with someone leaving, whether in life or in death, there is still pondering necessary. That noodling that happens when I hang out with Hither and Thither, puttering about inside my head to figure out if there is any dusting or straightening up that needs to happen so I don’t trip over something later on. This doesn’t mean that I won’t recall or remember or shed a tear, or wonder about ‘what ifs’ or ‘how mights’. It’s […]

Categories: family, Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', musings, unique observation • Tags: adult children, empty nest, estranged child, estranged parent, everyday life, grief, just ponderin', life, musings

… on death and peace

February 3, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

A very long time ago, Little Me approached the front door of my father’s house. I’ve mentioned this before. He had missed a few visits… And a few child support payments. This was the 1970s, when a lot of mothers didn’t work. Didn’t have skills. Got a little frantic when an ex-husband didn’t come through with the check. No check meant no food. And eventually no heat, or lights… Or roof over your children’s heads. My mother ushered my sister […]

Categories: childhood memories, family, just ponderin', memories, secrets to happiness • Tags: abandoned by father, death of a parent, death of estranged father, death of estranged parent, death of father who abandoned, grief, joy, just ponderin', musings, secrets to happiness

… on ‘sending’ I care

January 29, 2016 by Lisa Dingle

Over the past several weeks, in real life and in digital life, people in my sphere of knowing are going through tough things. Family, friends, neighbors (both analog neighbors with physical addresses nearby, and digital neighbors, with ISP addresses I can visit in cyberspace in a flash)… anyway, it seems a series of people are dealing with ‘tough stuff’… Medical stuff. Scary stuff. Loved one in trouble stuff. Loved one gone stuff. I know it is common to refer to […]

Categories: Feel good stuff, joy, just ponderin', unique observation • Tags: family, friendship, grief, homing hugs, hugs, humor, joy, just ponderin', musings, support

… on death at christmas

December 5, 2015 by Lisa Dingle

Someone important to our family just entered hospice care. A wonderful woman, loving and strong. A woman who is loved, who will be missed. And the world will be one voice quieter. Have one less heart. What I know of death is more than some, less than others. It’s not a contest. But one thing I know is, whether it’s a mother or father, son or daughter, friend, neighbor, … any being special to us, even a beloved animal companion […]

Categories: Christmas, holidays, joy, just ponderin', musings, poem, unique observation • Tags: death at christmas, death at christmastime, grief, hospice, joy, mourning at christmas, poem, poetry

… when it rains (apples)

September 29, 2015 by Lisa Dingle

Man oh man oh man. The past couple of weeks have been very interesting to say the least. Hang on to your hats while I list some stuff: We’ve had some sort of head cold/sort of fever/kind of cough thing going around the house. I’ve been calling it the Creeping Crud because first it hung out with Gabe, then creeped over into JoHn, then over to me… then it morphed into something just different enough to creep back to Gabe (poor […]

Categories: aspiring maine-iacs, fall in new england, family, Feel good stuff, Granny, just ponderin', Maine, musings, Old Yankee Man, secrets to happiness, the maine thing, unique observation • Tags: aging parents, everyday life, grief, humor, joy, maine, musings

just ponderin'

life's wHeirdness and wonder

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