Oswego
Entries 628
Page 1 of 26
The years 1984-1993 were what I describe as my time of wandering in the proverbial “wilderness. Nothing in the entire decade lasted more than a year or two. It was a period of being displaced...
To find new things, take the path you took yesterday. – John Burroughs The winding path approaches the secluded and peaceful place. – Huang Binhong What a relaxed life is that which flees t...
The healing power of a “magical” photograph in Daydreaming on the Porch
(Updated: June 12, 2026) Note: The following is a cautionary tale involving a job search, an interview, deeply thinking about the past (or overthinking it) and painful memories that surface sub...
I’m sitting on a bench under live oak trees after a meditative walk on a trail past marsh creeks and through the gardens where ancient camellias produce the most magnificent white red, and pink ...
Years ago a friend once wrote this to me in a comment on something I had written: I always felt sorry for the people who couldn’t enjoy their own company, who thought something was wrong if t...
It’s somewhere in Nebraska. I don’t know where, but several years ago I saw a photograph in a magazine of a scene so idyllic and memorable that I wanted to look at it and let it work its magic o...
The other night I walked along The Battery at sunset and then ventured down a few of my favorite streets in the historic district of Charleston, taking photos right at dusk. This is a favorite ...
Against all odds, it survived, a treasured keepsake from my past, and another reason why it’s so important for me to hold onto things. I’ve always saved and stored in a variety of containers,...
From the Memory Vault: An imagined place in Daydreaming on the Porch
My favorite old house in my mother’s hometown that I’ve passed countless times, walking or in my car. About ten years ago it came up for sale. I walk up the steps to the porch after a long da...
After 40 years, I know just about every square foot of the majestic and historic, Magnolia Gardens on the Ashley River, located about 12 miles from where I live. I dearly love the place, and ha...
Weddings: To dream the impossible dream? in Daydreaming on the Porch
Weddings are one of the truly happy milestones in life where two people, usually still in their youth, set out, joined together in matrimony. It’s a time of great emotion, tender farewells to ...
(Written on March 21, 2014 Updated on May 6, 2026) …people suffering from dementia have the ability to feel the emotions of those around them, particularly those who have been closest to them,...
(Written July 8, 2001, Updated April 30, 2026) Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Gandhi Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much. Wisdom i...
Still waiting on a good dream in Daydreaming on the Porch
There have been times in my life when I have only thought of the future because the present was so awful. Or else, life became a strenuous trial of endurance with circumstances and fate stacked...
There’s never enough time, or is there? in Daydreaming on the Porch
am impatient these days: there is not time enough in this one llife. I need more lives; I have made plans already for three or four. I could easily expand to ten or twenty, all full-flavored, ar...
Watching the skies outside my window alternate between overcast and emerging light. I love the anticipation. Suddenly it’s sunny out. I feel my spirits lifting. I keep turning to look out the wi...
Wisteria in the American South arrives like a soft-spoken announcement of spring. Overnight, the bare gray vines that twisted all winter along fences and porch rails release cascades of pale vio...
Imagine if you will, a landscape nearly pristine and untouched by the hand of man. Great forests stretching unbroken and uncleared for hundreds of miles. Rivers flowing free and undammed. Vistas...
Why do so many people denigrate possessions, as if their acquisition was meaningless, trivial and of only fleeting value? Possessions can be clutched for a while, used, and be easily discarded,...
From the Memory Vault: I’ve learned that…. in Daydreaming on the Porch
June, 25, 2005 I found an interesting book at the used books place recently, Live and Learn and Pass It On: People ages 5-93 share what they’ve discovered about life, love, and other good stuf...
I’ve loved live oaks and azaleas since childhood. Most of my life I’ve had close acquaintance with these magnificent trees and flowering shrubs, first in my youth growing up in New Orleans, an...
What do old family snapshots really reveal? in Daydreaming on the Porch
The last major move in my life was four years ago when my siblings and I sold my mother’s house downtown where I had lived the previous 12 years taking care of her until she passed away at 96 i...
A wise writer once said this: Certain places and living things become what we might call “anchors of being.” Symbols, yes, but not symbols we consciously assign meaning to, but presences and m...
Nostalgia, sentimentality, and reality: As someone once commented about a piece I had written on this subject, it contained some “lovely ideas, lovely memories, but I really don’t believe in the...
Abide awhile, Spring! Part 1 in Daydreaming on the Porch
A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew, And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, And closed them beneath the kisses of night. And the Spring arose...
