Do you hope for things? Or do you wish for them? There’s a big difference. I was a young teacher of the English language when, one day in front of a class, I realized I didn’t understand the distinction between “I hope” and “I wish.” At least I wasn’t initially able to explain it to … More Fluttering at the Bottom of the Jar
What do we give up when we refuse to take a path? We rarely get a second chance to find out. When I was 20, it simply didn’t occur to me that, in the old phrase, “opportunity never knocks twice.” As I travel through the West this May of 2018, at 63, I am getting … More Second Chances
I am reaching the age when I relate most of my present experiences to my past–to the decades since I first tasted that particular crunch of a sugar cone crammed with ice cream or saw that particular arc of a seagull’s glide over ocean water, and experience them again in the present moment. Today I … More Tangier Island
Originally posted on Marjorie Turner Hollman:
Gooseberry Island in Westport covered in blooming roses Summer means visits to the beach, but we don’t often think of riotous color when we think of beach visits. Our latest visit to Gooseberry Island, in Westport, MA brought the surprise of thousands of beach roses in full bloom. Throughout…
Yesterday, I took a beautiful drive to see the colors in the Smokies and to get fresh produce from Carver’s Apple Orchard in Cosby–a ritual I observed for years but had lately neglected. I used to go there with my family when my children were young until they began objecting to the long drive. It … More In God’s Country?
“It” carries a lot of baggage for such a tiny word. I’ve been collecting some idioms that refer to “it” without specifying what “it” means. Please add any you can think of. Weather idioms: It’s raining, it’s sunny, it’s foggy, it’s snowing, it’s cloudy, it’s cold, it’s hot, it’s warm, it’s cool, it’s windy, it’s … More Idioms with “It”
C4d fragments, by nihilusdesigns (http://nihilusdesigns.deviantart.com) I just came across a word I had never met before. We ought to be old friends, this word and I, because I do this thing quite a lot, being a person with a limited attention span who frequently starts a sentence in 2017 and ends in 1946, and I … More Word for the Day – Anacoluthon
For a while I have been working on how to teach ESL students not only how to write correct sentences but beautiful ones. In an 11-module course, I teach students how to use simple, short sentences for power and punch; compound and reduced compound sentences for, respectively, leisurely and speedy additions of information; complex sentences … More Beauty in Writing
Take a male donkey and a female horse and mate them, and you get a mule: strong, stubborn, with tough hooves and able to thrive on little and poor food. Great animals, but sterile. You can’t just breed mules. You have to persuade a donkey to mate with a mare, which apparently many are hesitant … More China: The Fertile Hybrid
Every city that I’ve visited in China has its own spirit and character, but Nanjing is unique for its “cultured and relaxed” (according to the Lonely Planet’s guide to China) atmosphere. Of course, one’s impressions of a place are largely and in some cases solely guided by the bits of the elephant that one gets to … More Nanjing and Kindness
Em Turner Chitty 