meditations and dialogues about family, books, ideas, and the writing life
Posted in Childhood memories, Danuta Hinc, Family, To Kill the Other on Dec 23rd, 2012
One of the Christmas memories I have from my childhood is cooking or baking with my mom. Here is an excerpt from To Kill the Other, in which making pastry, remembered by Marek, a Polish character in the novel, is based on my own experience. “I like the powdered ones because they remind me of [...]
Posted in Blogging, Childhood memories, Family, Meditations on life, People in my life, photos on Aug 7th, 2011
It is 5:20 a.m. someday in the middle of summer when I am seven or eight; my sister is three years younger. My sister and I are sitting in the kitchen, in our night gowns, on stools placed in the middle of the floor and facing the door. We are wide awake but we don’t [...]
Posted in Authors, Childhood memories, Family, Guest Poets, Language on Jul 24th, 2011
When I think of summer, I think of time not passing. I think of the beach and the constancy of one sound that was present before anyone could hear it. I think of my young lightweight body, darkened, pressing to the warm sand, as fine and white as flour. I think of the waves [...]
Posted in Childhood memories, Family, Meditations on life, People in my life on Jul 17th, 2011
When I look at this picture of my sister I remember the day. We were visiting my uncle, my mother’s brother and his family. They had just moved to this new apartment and my parents were excited to see the new place. My sister was two maybe two and a half years old. I was [...]
Posted in Childhood memories, Guest Poets, Poetry, Writing on Jul 6th, 2011
I looked at the floor and thought of chess. This made me feel sinful. I was not supposed to have frivolous thoughts while in church. The floor of the neo-Gothic church was made of black and white marble squares that made me think of the size of the chess pieces that would match the size [...]
Posted in Childhood memories, Family on Jun 21st, 2011
There was a moment in my life when I realized that my father used to be a child, just like me. This realization made me feel more mature but at the same time more vulnerable. In this moment, I realized that I am following my father’s path of growing up (which meant that eventually I [...]
Posted in Childhood memories, Family, Listening is an Act of Love, Meditations on life, People in my life on May 17th, 2011
I suspect that most of us believe that memories preserve a moment in time, something that happened and now is being accessed and viewed “as it was once before.” I suspect that most of us believe in their memories and are attached to the very specific way something is remembered. But what do we really [...]
Posted in Childhood memories, Family, Meditations on life, People in my life on May 8th, 2011
When I think of my mom who passed away of ovarian cancer on November 7, 1999 at the age of 63, this is what I see: It was a hot summer day. My mom, my sister Aleksandra (we call her Ola or Olenka), and I are in the garden. I am 6 or 7 years [...]
Posted in Childhood memories, Family, Meditations on life, People in my life on Jan 27th, 2011
I woke up this morning to a silence that was spreading inward and outward at the same time. Inward, I felt very centered, still chasing the tail of a dream while slowly reaching into the waking life. It was pleasant. Outward, I couldn’t hear any sounds outside the window and I imagined the snow that [...]
Posted in Books, Childhood memories, My first novel, People in my life on Jan 6th, 2011
To my childhood friends. Dedykuje moim przyjaciolkom z lat dziecinstwa. I feel like I haven’t posted anything new on my blog for ages. I think about all the things I want to write but for some reason I am unable to bring myself to writing. When I woke up this morning, I realized, and verbalized [...]
