When I walk on the Naugatuck Valley River Trail, I prefer to walk alone— the steady rhythm of my feet hitting pavement becomes a kind of mantra. Despite that, I do hear voices. In the breezes that sweep along the water, I hear my father’s words, “The wind clears out the cobwebs.” It does for me. Of course, there are other people on the trail. They pass coming and going within a few feet of me. On the breeze to the distress of my nose, I smell the scent of dryer sheets and the

I’ve had some interesting conversations in the past few days, though calling them conversations may be stretching it a bit. I am sharing them because they are leading me to look from another perspective. Merriam-Webster defines conversation as: oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas. For me, “exchange” is the operative word there. It also defines exchange as: the act of giving or taking one thing in return for another. In the first "conversation", I ha

A few weeks ago, I spent another overnight stay at the children’s hospital with my daughter and granddaughter. Nora, age eight, had a surgery on the bones and ligaments in her foot. Her orthopedic brace was no longer effective and walking had become painful. Though not brain surgery this time, it’s never fun to have a child you love in the hospital for any reason. For me it feels that during these stays, the whole world is contained in the hospital room we live in. Despite al