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Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Dec 6, 20243 min read
Aging Isn't What You Expect: Everyday Magic, Day 1,113
"How are we? How do we think we are? We are just waiting to die," Nanny (my grandmother) would tell me when I asked how she and Papa (my...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 15, 20243 min read
25 Strange, Wonderful, Annoying, and Luminous Discoveries Last Week: Everyday Magic, Day 1,107
One October week: Hurricane Milton, Northern Lights, a colonoscopy, Yom Kippur, Louise Erdrich in town, Comet Purple Mountain, and the...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
May 26, 20244 min read
Where's Beauty?: Everyday Magic, Day 1099
I've increasingly realized how I'm on the lookout for beauty most of the time -- the gaze of my dog Moxie when she raises her head from a...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Apr 30, 20244 min read
Five Years Later: A Cancer Story: Everyday Magic, Day 1098
"It's either an ocular melanoma or a brain tumor," the doctor told me five years ago. Ken, my brother Ravi, and I all gasped in unison....
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Mar 1, 20244 min read
"Life Will Break You": Everyday Magic, Day 1094
Within weeks of my terrifying eye cancer diagnosis in 2019, my friend Harriet brought me this hand-set-type print of my favorite quote...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jul 15, 20233 min read
A Sudden Storm, a Sudden Death: Everyday Magic, Day 1085
Just before Kris told me at lunch she couldn’t wait for a good thunderstorm, Denise texted Judy and me, “On the way to the hospital. Not...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 8, 20232 min read
Juxtapositions Make Life Interesting: Everyday Magic, Day 1074
Juxtapositions — putting like with non-like — add zip, surprise, sometimes anxiety, and often uncertainty to our lives. They’re also at...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Feb 13, 20222 min read
Love and Death in February: Everyday Magic, Day 1050
“Maybe since January lasted for seven and a half years, February will be easy,” I said to my friend Kris. She was doubtful since...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Mar 16, 20213 min read
In Praise of Goody: Everyday Magic, Day 1032
“The world will never be the same,” Ken told me right after Goody Garfield’s burial service. “We were witness to one of a kind, and...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 20, 20192 min read
New York City Wander Week: Everyday Magic, Day 988
I stood in the East Village Friday morning, marveling at a Langston Hughes quote I’ve never seen about falling in love with the energy of...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
May 14, 20174 min read
Mothering Hacks Picked Up Along the Way: Everyday Magic, Day 898
We were exhausted and exuberant when we brought Daniel home from the hospital intensive care following some complications in his birthing...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 8, 201621 min read
Surviving with Gumption & Grace: Everyday Magic, Day 875
Days of Caring event in Hays, Kansas — a luncheon and fashion show to raise awareness about breast cancer. Here’s the talk I gave,...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Aug 15, 20161 min read
Ocean View to Porch View: Everyday Magic, Day 868
Yesterday morning, I walked acros This morning, I walked to my front porch, put my feet up, and stared into the Osage Orange tree and...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 15, 20163 min read
Charles Is A Force of Nature: Everyday Magic, Day 862
Charles was one of the first Lawrencians I ever met, in about 1981 when I was a member of the Kansas City Sufi community, where Charles...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 6, 20164 min read
Saved (Again) By Music: Everyday Music, Day 860
Celebrating Claudia’s birthday at the concert with Michel Loomis Listening to the astonishingly spirited Claudia Schmidt perform a house...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
May 31, 20161 min read
The Growing Pains of Wild and Woolly Too-Muchness: Everyday Magic, Day 859
This Memorial Day weekend, I wrote and revised an obituary and memorial service after meeting with my friend’s family, organized some of...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 24, 20163 min read
Four Funerals and a Wedding: Everyday Magic, Day 885
I used to have more of a "Four weddings and a funeral" life, but get old enough, and things start to shift. In the last month, I've...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 19, 20162 min read
Generations: Everyday Magic, Day 884
Columbia was where we met in college, or more to the point, because of what we did in our many non-college hours: potlucks with too much...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 13, 20163 min read
A Wonder Made of Time and Staying Put: Everyday Magic, Day 883
A few days later, while wandering through the Merc to get a crapload of delicacies for friends facing serious medical woo-hah, I ran into...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jul 30, 20154 min read
Ken Irby, Rest (Travel, Drink, Read and Write) in Peace: Everyday Magic, Day 861
Last night I got to join some of Ken’s closest friends, some of whom have been devoting themselves to his health and comfort over many...
