Tag Archives: Spring

Apr 09 2023
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Poop Eggs, Orphan Holidays, Home Alone, & Gratitude

“For me, this holiday is a time for reflection, for renewing a spiritual connection, and for experiencing the hope and promise of the new beginnings of the spring season.” — An excerpt from my journal, Perfectly Flawed.

Leading up to Easter this year, I spent a lot of time reminiscing, rereading journal entries from holidays past and Easter-themed blog musings. Holidays, and the family rituals which we grew up with and the memories that remain, are mile markers of our journey in life. They provide a backdrop of the values and traditions of our ancestry and worship, the foundation of our beliefs. From childhood to adulthood, to this third chapter in my life, holiday traditions and rituals have evolved, some things nostalgically remain the same, others changed as I changed, and as the world changed. Continue reading →

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Mar 15 2022
Posts

The Road Forward: A Recovery Journey

Finding the Light in the Darkness

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu

Note: This article was originally written for and published in the March/April issue of Our Lives magazine, a look at the impact of the isolation of the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and a Wisconsin winter on our LGBTQ+ community. I drafted it in February. A link to the March/April issue of Our Lives follows the article.  

Continue reading →

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Apr 12 2020
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Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Easter Holiday

Like most holidays I celebrated as a child, Easter was a hybrid of religious traditions, the social culture from the generation in which I grew up, and our own ethnic and family rituals, which we repeated in some fashion every year.  

Easter Holidays Past

Note: Includes excerpts from Poop Eggs & Lamb Cakes

Today is the Easter Holiday and Passover. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, my family had many traditions which we repeated every year, some with glee, and others with complaints. On Easter Saturday, we’d color eggs, which the Easter Bunny would hide that night. Mom boiled two or three dozen as our family grew. She’d cover the kitchen table with newspaper and the kids would crowd around it with our crayons, the white wax marker to write our names, a spoon in hand ready to dip the eggs in the assembly line of Easter egg dye in her Corelle coffee cups. Continue reading →

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Mar 23 2019
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Posts

Creatures of Habit: Harbingers of Spring

“What I’ve learned, the lessons from keeping and rereading journals, is that I’m a creature of habit. Though I allow my imagination to wander and travel places like a free spirit, I’m pretty earthbound and sensitive to the changing of the seasons, the length of daylight in a day, the heat of the sun on skin, the relationship of the stars and moon to our planet, the color of grass and leaves, the smell of the breeze as it changes from the smoky potpourri of autumn to the chilled neutrality of winter, followed by the musky odor of newly-turned earth and fragrant scent of flowers blooming in spring. And, finally, the conscious and unconscious cycles of life.” — An excerpt from the introduction of Seasons/Change, one of my poetry chapbooks. Continue reading →

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Apr 14 2018
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Posts

A Filmgoer’s Dispatch: Wisconsin Film Festival Part II

Spring returned ever so briefly for a couple days this wintry 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival, the 20th anniversary #wifilmfest. Beginning Monday, it was back to work for me during the day, then off to the AMC Theater at Hilldale Mall to spend late afternoons and evenings in line and in darkened movie theaters. I reunited with friends who I see every year at the festival and made new friends and cinephile connections as we waited in line, chatted each other up, talked about our favorite films so far, and what was next on our schedule.    Continue reading →

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Apr 05 2018
3 Comments
Posts

A Filmgoer’s Preview: The Wisconsin Film Festival

“I think the experience of going to a theater and seeing a movie with a lot of people is still part of the transformational power of the film, and it’s equivalent to the old shaman telling a story by the campfire to a bunch of people.” — Wes Craven

Though it snowed the last couple of days and the temps are winter-like, it’s spring in Wisconsin. Like the migrating birds who return home, and the crocuses that will soon bloom, another sign of spring is the annual Wisconsin Film Festival #wifilmfest . This year it’s the 20th anniversary and cinephiles will fill theaters on campus and on the westside of Madison. Filmgoing audiences will view approximately 150 films over the course of eight days, Thursday, April 5 through Thursday, April 12, which makes the 20th Annual Wisconsin Film Festival the largest university-produced film festival.  Continue reading →

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Mar 18 2018
Posts

Past/Present/Future

Musings About Change & Living in the Moment  

“I wake up earlier in the morning and rise before dawn. I crack open the screen door to smell the earth begin to thaw, and watch the characteristics of the daylight change, the relationship of the sun to earth. Instead of reminiscing about the past, I’m more likely to think about the future and what lies ahead. I want to move, awaken my senses, feed my desires.” — from The Itchy Restlessness of Spring Fever —Linda Lenzke Continue reading →

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Aug 27 2017
Posts

Seasons/Change

“Memories recycle of seasons past
of people absent and places far away.
I soothe myself with the solace of ritual.
There is comfort in repetition
and wonder in change.” — From the poem, The Solace of Ritual, Linda Lenzke

It has been and continues to be a hellavu week, a reminder of the power of nature — the relationship of the sun, moon, and earth — and how it impacts the weather. Beginning this past Monday in North America, we witnessed the total or partial eclipse of the sun, depending on where we landed on, or near, the path of totality. Continue reading →

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Apr 16 2017
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Posts

Filmgoer’s Dispatch: 2017 Wisconsin Film Festival

“Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life time…” ― Martin Scorsese

The first signs of spring in Madison, Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Film Festival premieres in theaters on the University of Wisconsin campus and near east and westside neighborhoods, usually during the end of March and early April, the terrace chairs return to the UW Memorial Union, and the first Dane County Saturday Farmer’s Market arrives. Continue reading →

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Mar 12 2017
Posts

The Itchy Restlessness of Spring Fever

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”  ― Mark Twain

It’s true, I came down with a case of spring fever again this year, beginning in February — the symptoms were clear: Itchy restlessness, daydreaming, and questioning the choices in my life — wondering what the future holds for me. Desires and appetites grow stronger. I begin to wear clothes outdoors that are inappropriate for the weather, light jackets, short-sleeves, go sockless with canvas shoes or sandals with snow underfoot.   Continue reading →

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