July’s Twilight

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posted Jul 9, 2023


  Yesterday, I was treated to one of July’s lovely, long lasting twilights. I had earlier in the day overseen what I considered some dramatic changes to our garden by a landscaping crew: some pretty ground cover in a once barren area, additional flowers strategically placed in several spotty...

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Smitten

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posted Sep 11, 2022


This is a confession.  I have to face facts and stand in judgment.  Please be merciful for I have become that which I once held in ridicule. That most tiresome and clueless imposer of …. things about my cat.  E. Marmer | Free to Navel Gaze Thus far (for the most...

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The Luckiest Bastard

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posted Dec 16, 2019


E. Marmer | Free to Navel Gaze My father Stanley taught me gratitude the way he taught me everything, which is to say, in the fewest words possible. In contrast, when telling a story, or bringing history alive, boy, could he grandstand. His descriptions were drawn out, delicious, almost...

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When She Was Here

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posted Jul 11, 2019


E. Marmer | Free to Navel Gaze When she was here, my mother would lie on her bed after I helped her shower, on top of the long white towel she insisted I put down so the bed wouldn’t get wet. But I thought of that towel as part...

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I Thank My Mother For My Sisters...

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posted Mar 31, 2019


E. Marmer | Free to Navel Gaze The Three Sisters by Betty Albert I am now parentless. My father died about fifteen years ago, and a little more than two weeks ago my mother died.  And I miss her so terribly. I am continually coming up against the impulse to...

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Meeting the Hudson

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posted Dec 8, 2018


E. Marmer | Free to Navel Gaze I was personally introduced to the Hudson River this past autumn.  Not down by New York City, where a personal introduction to that expansive maw, that sparkling, churning, briny phenomenon bristling with industry, transport and technology, is not possible; but up by...

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