My father-in-law, Donald Lupescu, passed away on the morning of February 6th. He had gone into the hospital on Friday evening after a fall, and they discovered severe bleeding on his brain and an infected valve in his heart. It proved too much for his body, and he became unresponsive on Saturday and slowly slipped away, giving family the chance to ( Read more... )

I've been thinking a lot about authenticity, about what is genuine ( Read more... )

One of my favorite quirky Ukrainian traditions is the tossing up of a spoonful of kutia (porridge) on Sviat Vechir (Ukrainian Christmas Eve) to see if sticks.

If it does, it means luck and happiness in the year ahead.

We usually celebrate the holiday with its traditional 12 dishes at home (see this blog entry from 2011 for more information), ( Read more... )

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But every day, I am grateful for

the beauty of this life,

the quiet moments of awareness and peace,

the raucous moments of chaotic joy,

the love of family and friends,

the readers and listeners who allow my stories to engulf them,
the writers who have shared their words with me,

the creativity of so many artists who allow me to see and feel things anew,

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For my friends and family (especially Mark):

A Writer’s Apologia

1.

Although I love you, I may not see you for hours or days or weeks, even if we live or work together.

2.

When writing, my inbox and voice messages pile up around me until I forget that they are there. My intention is to get to them, but in all probability, they will be lost. I ( Read more... )

It is my favorite season, time to harvest and prepare for Winter. I always look forward to it, but this has been a particularly challenging Autumn.

I found out my grandmother's brother in Ukraine died tragically in a fire today as he sat beside the stove for warmth. He survived the Holodomor, WWII, Siberia, and the Soviet Union. He was reunited with ( Read more... )

Today is the kids' 100th day of school, and so they were asked to take a photograph with a collection of 100 things.
For those of you who know my kids, it should be no surprise the objects that each chose for their photo:


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