Despite having lived on the West Coast for decades, I remain a New Englander at my core. Born in Boston and raised in a small town only miles from Walden Pond, I was steeped in New England history and ideas. I read the work of writers like Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow…

The arrival of spring reliably brings with it the urge to clean up, throw things out, and bring order to the accumulated dust and detritus of indoor living. The urge comes to me in unpredictable waves and must be acted upon immediately before it vanishes. I begin to see overlooked…

I have not met my seven-week-old grandniece, Radley, in the flesh, but I can’t get enough of watching videos of her squirming and cooing, flailing her tiny limbs around and making mini fists. The first of her generation in our family, she is adored by all of us. Her mother…

My curiosity has always been hitched to the human mind. That is why I’m a fiction writer. As such, I have always been somewhat solitary. However, when the pandemic coincided with the onset of my ALS, which robbed me of speech and made talking with others difficult, I have spent…

People frequently ask my husband — and sometimes they ask me — if I am really as upbeat about my ALS as I appear to be in my posts. When I woke this morning I was asking myself that question too. The answer is yes. My posts express as honestly…

In a couple of days I will be having surgery to replace my infusion port which has become blocked by fibrous tissue. This will be the third port I’ve had implanted near my clavicle to transport the ALS drug Radicava. I am hoping the third time will be charmed. The…

Until the pandemic began, I practiced hot yoga for almost a decade. One day after class a young woman who had been practicing near me approached me in the locker room. She leaned toward me and brought her face close to mine. “You are a beast,” she said. Laughing, I…

I am just back from a glorious four-day writing retreat in a desert landscape in central Oregon, where I went with my good friend Miriam. The time was special for so many reasons. The property, which has several cabins for writers and artists, is situated on the edge of a…