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Category Archives: Life

Larger Than Me

August 3, 2014by cartochronographer 2 Comments

Somewhere, there is a large rock, on a hillside, above a stream, in the woods. It is large enough to sit on if you are a young child, and probably […]

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Life

Throwback. Love in Winter.

February 16, 2014by cartochronographer Leave a comment

There’s no good time to fall in love, except when you’re young, and stupid, and don’t know any better, and think (mistakenly) that you have nothing to lose. Outside of […]

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Life, New York City

The River

August 27, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

It’s late afternoon and I’m sitting at the end of Pier 25 in Manhattan, a concrete oasis that seemingly sprung up overnight from the broken pilings and submerged wreckage of […]

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Life

Unfinished.

August 20, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

The world is a little quieter. A little less clamorous, my friend. A little less wise, and a little less petulant. I need to tell you that a stillness, the […]

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Life

No Self

Featuredby cartochronographer 1 Comment

In the quiet solitude of morning, the dogs nuzzle my hand for attention and breakfast. All is quiet. I make coffee, one cup, pouring the boiling water over the grounds. […]

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Life

Blue

Featuredby cartochronographer Leave a comment

Comfort me. Fill my eyes with sky, and color so my mind is full and there is room for only sky, and color. Make the sky that blue. Make the […]

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Life

Sleepless

July 27, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

Used to mean so many things — the quiet night, the stillness of solitude, dominion over all the quiet spaces while the rest of the world slept. A walk outside, […]

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Life

Calamity

July 25, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

Things unexpected. Calamity and consequence. Ruptures. Earthquakes. Sinkholes. The collapse of the ordinary. The tiniest distance in space and time between the ordinary and the extraordinary. I have a memory […]

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Life, Love

Rituals

July 14, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

When we talk of ancient people, silent, except for the physical objects unearthed, no words to explain their meaning, the lives they lived, the civilizations they built, we look at […]

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Life

Impermanence

July 11, 2013by cartochronographer 1 Comment

It’s early morning. The sun isn’t up yet and I’m trying to remember that most likely my neighbors aren’t either. I have finished with the sleeping for today. It’s quiet, […]

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Life

Fighting. Yelling. Dying.

July 10, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

I wrote about stillness. The words are fighting me. They are jamming up and congregating in unauthorized areas and refusing to transit single file. They are being unruly. Transitions are […]

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Life

Stillness

July 8, 2013by cartochronographer 3 Comments

I went skydiving once. I did what is called an accelerated free fall (AFF) from 12,500 feet of altitude with two dive instructors in the Mohave desert in California. I […]

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Life

This Sacred Morning

Featuredby cartochronographer 1 Comment

Memories are tricky things. Life flows by day to day, slipping gradually, usually, from one thing into another. This year is different from last year in subtle ways. Last year […]

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Life

Bookends

July 4, 2013by cartochronographer 1 Comment

Having reminded myself how to change a flat on my bicycle, I’m now giving the beast an overhaul. I sort of, mostly, know how to do this. Parts of things […]

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Life

Breathe

July 3, 2013by cartochronographer 1 Comment

Breathe the air. Breathe the air. Breathe real air into my lungs. Now write. This is about afterward. This is a story about Linda (my sister), but not Linda. This […]

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Life

Pearls

Featuredby cartochronographer Leave a comment

A stick, a stone. A gesture, a heartbeat. Connections to the natural world, an ephemeral feeling of something larger and interconnected, flowing through, at one with. Experienced in the wind, […]

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Life

The Acorns

July 2, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

At the base of a tree — a fruitless mulberry tree, that may or may not still exist, that harbored young juvenile refugees on imagined harrowing ocean voyages, and imagined […]

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Life

Respite

June 30, 2013by cartochronographer 1 Comment

My garden. All weekend at the end of a week of exams, papers, labs, extracurriculars. Parent teacher conferences. My garden, in a community garden, a plot of earth, mine for […]

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Life, Love

Disintegration

Featuredby cartochronographer Leave a comment

A year ago, a then new friend told me, as we began to know each other, that more than anything, I seemed very far from home. It was true. I […]

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Life, New York City

My Sister, Linda — An Introduction

June 29, 2013by cartochronographer Leave a comment

I both do and do not want to write this post. Characters will meander through this space, and I feel you should be acquainted with some of them. Some will […]

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Life, Love

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Nancy Parmalee

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