Can I distinguish my 82-year-old self (BC) from the anxious discombobulated person I have become (DC)? I have the same need to feed, heal, and inspire others with my work. But I have been bent out of shape by the new procedures my partner Janet and I have to follow. Operating primarily in digital space with everyone else is disorienting.

Hey Jeri! You said “Lightness of Being” was going to lead you. I don’t see much of that in your last entries. And humor? That’s nearly extinct. Today I direct you­­­––at least try–– to make me laugh. If we can’t laugh at ourselves… what? We’re depending upon someone else to tickle our funny bone?

I want to review what life during Covid has been for me––what has sustained me, inspired me and what has grieved me and made me cry out to God, “Help me to be strong, so I can be of help to this troubled planet.” Yesterday, Sept. 11, I couldn’t write. I meditated, prayed and remembered that day of horror that brought the war home to my city––war, that had always been somewhere else, not America, not New York City, not West End Avenue, my street. I remembered and mourned again with my people, still in disbelief that so many people were killed in a few hours, 2,763 in fact, as three of the World Trade Centers collapsed. But 21 years later I am more aware then ever at how many die every day in the US from famine, poverty, drug overdose, from racist, sexist, LGBTQIA brutality––“Dear God, help me to not be overcome by these thoughts of death.”

Life during covid has been a constant challenge. How can I invent, improvise, be fluid, open, forgiving, embracing, resilient? How can I not shrink in my spirit and body with being cut off from loved ones, friends, from freedom of movement and closeness with them. I’ll list here what has helped me stay in the moment, being grateful and even in rare moments, being happy:

On June 1, 2019, this first day of LGBTQ Pride Month, and the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, my partner, Janet, and I reveled in three momentous cultural/political events honoring our past/present/future struggles for human rights through creative expression: 1.The installation reception of prolific photographer JEB (Joan E. Biren)’s Being Seen Makes a Movement… Continue reading On the First Day of Pride Month

So, what is it like, really like, to turn 80? Writing about one’s identity in a truthful and engaging manner is always challenging. Though perhaps not as anxiety producing as unveiling details of one’s sex life, revealing the delicate topic of age takes guts, especially in a culture fixated on face-lifts aping thirty-year-olds.

I’m here with four other women to experience the total solar eclipse which last occurred in the US on February 26, 1979. Here is the Best Western Suites near Opryland on the outskirts of Nashville, researched by our organizer as an excellent location for viewing. Many who have experienced such an event have been profoundly affected. We hope to be awe struck at the very least.