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Author: Anne Cassidy

Dad’s Day

Dad’s Day

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Dad would have been 99 today. It’s not a stretch to imagine such a birthday for him. He was almost 91 when he died. 

I’m not sure he would have cared for what this world has become in the eight years since he’s been gone: harder, meaner, more confusing. And yet, Dad took his joy from family and friends, so I imagine he would have adjusted to the craziness. 

Because what’s important is that he would have seen five granddaughters marry and four become mothers, would have held six (soon to be seven) great-grandchildren in his arms.  He would have relished the new generation, as he relished so much of life. 

But four-score-and-ten is not a shabby lifespan, and he was not complaining at the end. Only grateful for what he had.  As we all were for having him so long. 

(Dad clowning around, as he was wont to do.)

Breathing Space

Breathing Space

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There was, at one point, going to be a window seat here. There still might be. 

There was, at one point, a swag on these windows. And there might be again.

But for now, this is the most precious of spaces. An empty one. Sometimes I sit on the floor here with a pillow at my back and watch the dust motes in the air.  It’s an empty space, a breathing space. 

So for now, there is nothing here. And there might never be.

Unplugged

Unplugged

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While I would like to say I always walk bare-eared, open to the sounds of wind in the pines and birds on the bough, in truth I am usually plugged in, listening to music or a recorded book. 

Yesterday, I started out with one of these in mind, but as I began to amble along a forest path, I realized that I couldn’t pollute my ears. The only sounds that should enter them on such a pristine spring morning should be the sounds the morning itself produced.

It was a calm, quiet, meditative experience. I’m doing it again today. 

80-1 … 91-1

80-1 … 91-1

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When I wrote Saturday’s post, which only alluded to the Derby, I didn’t know what a Derby it would be. Didn’t know that friends and family would be calling and texting to share their amazement. Didn’t know that Rich Strike, the horse with the second-longest odds ever, would win the race. 

What I had forgotten until my brother reminded me yesterday was that the horse who won with the longest odds ever was Donerail, 91-1, named for Donerail Station in Scott County, Kentucky. It’s a horse I’ve heard about since I was a child, a horse Mom would have bet on, for sure, if only she had been alive and of betting age at the time (1913). 

As the descendants of both Donnellys and Scotts, as the proud daughter of a long-shot bettor, as a fan of hopeless causes everywhere, Rich Strike, I salute you!

The Meadow Land

The Meadow Land

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It’s the first Saturday in May, the one day of the year when Kentucky takes center stage in the sporting world. But this first Saturday in May I’m thinking of a different sort of Kentucky and Kentuckian. I’m knee-deep into Boone: A Biography by Robert Morgan. 

I’ve been learning a lot about my home state. For instance, the name doesn’t necessarily mean “dark and bloody ground.” It could be Shawnee for “at the head of the river.” Or Wyandotte for “the land of tomorrow.” Or Iroquois for “the meadow land”—kenta (level) and aki (place).  

That one makes the most sense: it captures the open savannah for which the Bluegrass region is known. 

But whatever the origin, Morgan says, “some words have a resonance, a color, and are memorable even before we know what they mean. We love to say them just to feel them in the air and on our tongue.”

Amen, Mr. Morgan. 

The Details

The Details

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Being under the weather, as I have been this week, helps me appreciate the details. I woke up thirsty this morning and have been enjoying sips of cold, clear water as I answer emails and read the paper. 

Having a comfy couch or chair on which to recline as I do these things … that’s another detail to enjoy. As are the rhododendrons that bloomed while I wasn’t looking.

It’s no secret that being restricted narrows the lens, helps us focus on what we still have.  I’m trying to let this flu bug do that for me. 

A Trip to D.C.

A Trip to D.C.

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A few days ago I met a friend for lunch in D.C. I parked in the Union Station garage and made my way past the old neighborhood: New Jersey and 1st Avenue, along E Street to the National Building Museum, where I stole a glance at those stunning columns. 

From there to Chinatown, bustling again, though with way too many boarded-up stores. The restaurant we chose was still in business, though, and lively, to boot.

After that, a stroll down the Mall and over to the Botanic Garden and a cool outdoor exhibit/structure made of brush, a human-sized nest that kids were running in and out of. 

I love the views of the Capitol you get from the Garden. It humanizes and softens the building, makes it seem more a part of the landscape. Which, of course, it certainly is.

Calm after the Storm

Calm after the Storm

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We were pelted overnight by some much-needed rain. I could hear it beating the earth, could imagine it puddling on the driveway and in the low spots of the front yard. 

This morning the world looks fresh and clean. The azaleas are greening, shedding their brilliant jewel-toned flowers and becoming the sedate shrubs they are for most of the year. 

It’s a quiet, still day so far, the calm after the storm. Which at this point is … most welcome. 

Tallying…

Tallying…

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Over the weekend, a milestone: it’s been a year since I started this new life. The temptation is to tally up the “accomplishments,” to see if I’ve earned this freedom. 

But the “freedom” is already teaching me not to add up accomplishments, to see that as exactly the sort of mindset I was trying to escape. 

Instead, I’m remembering the farewell message I sent my colleagues in April of 2021. I told them that I was leaving to “write, study and travel.” And lo and behold, writing, studying and traveling is exactly what I’ve been doing. 

So the only tallying I’m doing today is … the counting of blessings. 

Double Sightings

Double Sightings

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Last evening, working in a walk when the wind had finally died down, I strolled past a woman standing by her mailbox. She looked familiar … and she was still there a few minutes later as I had turned toward home. “Do I know you?” she asked. 

In the few minutes since I’d passed her I’d figured out the connection. “I think you go to my church,” I said. And yes, that’s exactly where we had seen each other.

In a small town, you often bump into neighbors at school or at the grocery store—usually when you’ve run in grubby from gardening and hope you won’t spot a soul you know. Not so with suburban living: the population is exponentially larger but the possibilities of chance meetings infinitely smaller.  

I treasure these “double sightings.” From them grow the connections from which friendship flows. 

(Even snow people like company.)