The woman in front of me is coming undone. Wrestling a huge suitcase and a tiny child she is getting tied up in the black stretchy divider keeping the mass of people in orderly lines. Muttering to herself, she is close to tears and I hear a voice cut through the din around us: “Ma’am,
Read on »Posts By: Ellen
FOOD FRIDAY: Brewed Roasted Cocoa Beans – Could this be love?
I cannot drink coffee, or even tea, regularly and that has put me at a disadvantage. I used to wonder why I seemed to have so much less energy than the rest of the world until I realized that most of the world is fueled by caffeine, and I am fueled by, well, sleep. I
Read on »Shifting Gears
The plate flips and lands on the floor with a crash. My expletive booms into the air, bounces off the walls and then, just as suddenly, the silence closes back in around me like a vacuum seal. Having jumped off the couch when I knocked the plate from its precarious perch, my heart still pounds.
Read on »Please and Thank You
In the thick soft quiet that descends upon the city when it is blanketed in snow, I heard it: the scraping of a snow shovel, and I thought: “Thank you.” When I went out walking later, I thought those words again every time I reached a stretch of shoveled sidewalk or crossed the plowed streets.
Read on »Waning Light – A Photo Essay
Fiery ball dropping Busy with my indoor tasks earlier this afternoon, I received this text message from my husband: “Go outside. It’s beautiful” I looked out the window and saw blue sky. Catching his sense of urgency, I was quick to put on my walking shoes to be out in what could be our last
Read on »Home
A few months after we moved to Boston we flew to San Diego to spend the holidays with family. We had been flying in and out of San Diego where my sister and her family live for over 20 years and that airport felt as familiar as an old friend. When we flew back into
Read on »Sisterhood
Women need sisters. I am immensely lucky: I was issued the very best of sisters at birth. Despite my annoying behavior as a child, including sabotaging her first dates and breaking her entire collection of miniature glass animals, she has always had my back, loving me in a super hero kind of a way. And
Read on »Roots, Wings and Tattoos
Remember in Mary Poppins, when the wind changes direction and it is time for Mary Poppins to open her umbrella and float away? Well it feels as if the winds are changing in my life. After an unexpected post-college year at home, our son has left for a two year graduate program in Berlin
Read on »Food Friday Mango Chutney a la Francesca
Sure it is great when you have a recipe, a shopping list and a plan. But what about those days when the challenge of getting from one end of the day to the other did not include that level of organization? That is when creativity becomes an important cooking skill. Making something appetizing from what’s
Read on »Food Friday – Chicken in Curry and Coconut Sauce
The glorious and somewhat excessive heat we have been experiencing here in Boston broke temporarily this week, with temps tumbling into the 60’s and rain pouring down. With the cooler air, our appetites returned a bit, as no-one seemed to be too hungry when it was so hot. My son, who has been doing
Read on »Paris Tapestry
We exit the Metro, climbing the steps out of the Porte Maillot station, and I orient myself with my Plan de Paris, a little blue book of maps discretely tucked into most Parisians’ pockets and purses. It has been 30 years but I am hoping that I have this right. I am trying to find
Read on »Soundtrack to my life movie
There are moments when my life has a soundtrack. The first time my two young kids and I rode bicycles down a cobble stone street in the town of Hilversum in the Netherlands, I thought I was imagining the accordion music that accompanied us. We had the oddest sensation of being in a movie of
Read on »A canvassing experience from start to finish
This is what I was thinking: I don’t have time, I don’t like knocking on doors, I already volunteered, my son volunteered, my daughter volunteered, I have to pack for my big trip, I have work to do, I am being guilted into this, I have done enough! This is what happened: I whined and
Read on »Dancing in the Rain: Graduation 2013
The weather roller coaster continues its crazy ride. It poured rain again Friday with temperatures in the 50’s after cycling through the 90’s, 80’s and 70’s all in the past two weeks. This being graduation season, when I saw that rain I felt bad for all the families braving the elements to cheer their students
Read on »Messy, Muddy, May-hem
Have you ever noticed that the root of the word “Mayhem” is “May”? Yes, mayhem, defined as rowdy disorder[1], or riotus confusion[2], is based on that lovely spring month, May. I forget every year what happens in May. In the depths of February I look forward to spring, to flowers, to warmer temperatures, to May:
Read on »Food Friday Salade Composee
I really hate making lunch. Breakfast, ok, I am half asleep and working on automatic. Dinner, great, I can be creative and it is a good change from the work I have been doing all day. But lunch is annoying. If I am working at home that day, it seems I have just cleaned up
Read on »Iwo Jima and Gratitude
On my recent trip to Washington, DC I stayed in a hotel in the concrete jungle known as Rosslyn, Virginia. With its high-rise office buildings and hotels it lacks the red brick charm of its neighbor, Georgetown, just one mile away across the Key Bridge, but it is very close to one of the area’s
Read on »Sign on the Dotted Line
Earlier this year, in the depths of winter, I saw a little crack of light ahead. I could see that some time was opening up, time for me. I know how quickly those windows can close, so I was determined to make the most of this, to act and not let that time slip by.
Read on »Therapeutic Cooking Blueberry Ribs
What can you do when you are held hostage in your house, along with an entire terrified city? What can you do when you are sick at heart and in spirit, and you wonder how a seemingly good person could have gone so very deeply and horrifyingly wrong? When your body is exhausted and your
Read on »Living the Day After
My husband got up this morning and went for a long run, a tribute to those hurt by the Marathon bombs, and a statement: Live your life; it’s the only way to win this battle. I was afraid, but I know we cannot live in fear, so I made myself leave the house this morning
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