Patricia Wild’s Blog

Excerpt 1: Strands
[Since I am both proud of what I am currently working on and, apparently, unable to do more than one ...
Making Do
Six stamps left. Loathe to step inside our tiny, neighborhood post office and wanting to support the currently-endangered USPS, we'd ...
“Feeding off the Vibe”*
Zoom has become a daily feature in my life, much-needed yet disquieting. Yes, I long for connection with others; I ...
How Can I Keep from Singing?
Almost home from our daily walk, just as we were walking past, we saw a neighbor we didn't know come ...
Talk to the Hand
[This story centers on someone whose identity I should protect. So will be using the they pronoun.] Yesterday on a walk, ...
Cover Your Mouth!
More than forty years ago, when my oldest daughter was in elementary school, we'd lived in Wethersfield, Connecticut's historic district, ...
What I’m Taking On For Lent
I'm not giving up anything this year; I'm taking on something. Something I've been afraid to take on for most ...
Butter-knifing
Here I am, once again, "circling Fort Knox with a butter knife trying to figure out how to get in."* ...
It’s Complicated
Back in the day when I taught homeless women in greater Boston shelters, one of my students, young and lovely, ...
Fallow
[Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, California, after a fire.] When I was working on WellingUp.net, I told its web developers: "You ...
The Marmee Dilemma
Much is being written or vlogged about Greta Gerwig's "Little Women." May I join in? Seated in perfect seats in ...
Muscle Memory
One Sunday morning every December, my Quaker meeting shortens its morning worship to put on a fifteen-minute Christmas pageant. Directed ...
Two Toucans Touching
Sometimes I exchange books with a dear friend. Sometimes I'll notice intriguing titles or descriptives in a box of give-aways ...
The Big Picture (Or As Much of It That’s Currently Available)
What I'm about to write may seem ridiculously obvious. And political—not spiritual. And yet this Ah Hah feels Spirit-given: Yesterday ...
Just The Facts, Folks
In order to be very, very careful, I must leave out most of the salient details that would make this ...
Out Of My Comfort Zone
[Set, "King Lear," Actors Shakespeare Project, Chelsea Theatre Works, Chelsea, MA] One of the many reasons my husband and I ...
Apples and Oranges
We talk about "speaking truth to power"; sometimes using just the right words, even if they're highfalutin', can be enormously ...
Yes, Ma’am
[Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind.] Take it from me, someone who'd stumbled ...
“Radical Acceptance”
I have a new mantra these days. And it's powerful. And eerily, mysteriously effective. Here's an example of how it ...
Time-Sensitive
A coal barge slowly cruises up the Ohio River; it passes the Jeffboat Company, now shut down, where the rust-colored ...
Freshly Brilliant
There have been many times over the past month as I either prepared for or recovered from both eyes' cataract ...
Somewhere With No Service
[Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico] It's been almost three weeks since I last heard ...
Patterns, Examples
Forty years ago and just beginning to attend Friends Meeting at Cambridge, I'd considered the people I'd worshipped with every ...