Robin's Nest

A Moment of Reflection It is September 11th, the third anniversary of the tragedy that took place at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. I don’t know what is the best way to honor the memories of the fallen of 9/11. If I had been among those lost, here

LOSS The hardest thing in the world to understand is loss. What does it mean when we lose something? Where does it go? Let’s start with weight. I mean, if you lose five pounds, where do those five pounds actually go? Okay, the scientific among us will say something witty like, “They are converted into

FEAR OF FLYING I wasn’t afraid of flying as a child. I can remember our family flying from Pittsburgh to New York City when I was no more than eight years old, so that was back in the days when stewardesses wore little hats and gave out tiny pairs of wings to the kids for

One of my favorite crackpot theories is the theory of the Warranty. This one came to me in a flash about five years ago. Here’s the theory: When we are born we are like new cars; shiny, perfect, unblemished, and full of promise. Apart from the occasional childhood illness (measles, mumps, stomach virus), most of

ANT WARS It all began on a beautiful day in May. I had fed our kitties outside in their “kitty room”, a sort of makeshift shelter consisting mostly of white lattice work wood and a fiberglass roof attached to the side porch of our house. The kitties have a pet door that leads them out

LABOR DAY REFLECTIONS I sometimes think I was born in the wrong century. Domestic bliss comes naturally to me. Career (at least with a Capital C) does not. I just got done making my second batch of preserves for the season. Peach. The first batch was strawberry. I’ve never made preserves before, except once with

Creativity I will preface all of this with a disclaimer so that I can stop saying, “I think. . .”. This is based only on my own experience, so it may or may not hold true for you. In fact, please refer to this disclaimer from now on whatever I write so that you and

I’ve been watching the presidential race for a long time now. It has probably sent my blood pressure up ten points and caused my digestion to run amok. I am a shameless liberal Democrat. Matter of fact, I’m proud of it. So you can imagine that when the Republican National Convention was on last week,

MISFITS WELCOME Growing up a small, pale, Jewish girl in Pittsburgh in the 50s, I was the odd one. For one thing, I had very curly, frizzy hair. No matter how hard I tried to tame it down with barrettes, bobby pins, rubber bands, and goop, the bangs still flipped up, the curls went in