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Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Dec 11, 20243 min read
Riding With Ronda (With Love): Everyday Magic, Day 1,114
Ronda reading at the 2014 Power of Words conference. Photo by Stephen Locke. When Ronda's son Scott called me Monday with the news of her...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 2, 20247 min read
What Talking About Books Across Kansas Can Do Over 32 Years: Everyday Magic, Day 1100
"So when we look at how a character changes the narrative of her life, we learn a lot about how we can do this too," I told ten people in...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Feb 11, 20243 min read
The Miracle of "Fast Car" Then and Now: Everyday Magic, Day 1092
By 1990, my Tracy Chapman cassette tape was played into such oblivion (and so repeatedly tangled in the car tape deck) that I had to buy...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 26, 20232 min read
Good Conversation on the Open Road: Everyday Magic, Day 1083
The temps soared to the high 90s, the sun was bright, and Ken and I took to the open road on Saturday for me to give a Humanities Kansas...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Apr 19, 20232 min read
The Most Beautiful Thing is Now: Everyday Magic, Day 1080
As soon as we started driving west from Kansas City International Airport Monday, I fell in love again with late afternoon light play and...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Nov 12, 20223 min read
Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?: Everyday Magic, Day 1070
Time continually befuddles me, so much so that my last book of poetry was called How Time Moves, and I’m still deep in the muck of...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 7, 20223 min read
Living As If We Know We’ll Be Okay: Everyday Magic, Day 1068
In one of my favorite movies, About Time, the main character, who can time travel, hatches a great plan: he’ll live each day with all its...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Aug 23, 20222 min read
Reversal of Fortune and the Wonder Wheel of Life: Everyday Magic, Day 1065
In mid-July, everything fell apart from air-conditioners to phones to cars and more. A growing river of money and time surged out to...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Aug 6, 20225 min read
We Never Leave You, You Never Leave Us: Everyday Magic, Day 1064
I left because it was making me sick, the “it” being the job I had loved fiercely and believed Iwould give my heart and time to until I...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 11, 20222 min read
Traveling Woman: Everyday Magic, Day 1059
Suddenly, I’m on the road a lot after the time-bending months of the pandemic. I went to Wichita for a night to visit with an old friend...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Aug 1, 20203 min read
On the First Night of August: Everyday Magic, Day 1012
Sometime in my early teens, I discovered Carole King’s Rhymes and Reasons, and like I had done with Joni Mitchell’s Blue (was there ever...


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
Sep 29, 20192 min read
Where I Live: A New Year’s Moment: Everyday Magic, Day 986
I’ve always lived in the wind and sky. From my Brooklyn bedroom, upstairs in a narrow triplex somewhere in East Flatbush, I would lean...


Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Aug 7, 20194 min read
Loving and Leaving Goddard: Everyday Magic, Day 981
Arm-in-arm, Vicky, Eduardo, Ralph, and I walked down the snowy country road, belting out “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” and doing...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Apr 7, 20191 min read
Unexpected Graces: Everyday Magic, Day 970
On our trip to Brooklyn, New York City, and New Jersey — aka the mothership for me — grace abounded, often like a slip of paper or wings...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 9, 20193 min read
Looking for Patterns and Finding Them Everywhere: Everyday Magic, Day 961
When Ken and I went to Mount St. Helens with friends several years ago, I was dazzled by the patterned forests full of checkerboard green...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jul 23, 20183 min read
I’m in Love With a Great Lake: Everyday Magic, Day 946
I’m in love with Lake Superior, and the more I visit, the deeper I fall. Not only is this the greatest of the Great Lakes, containing 10%...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jul 12, 20182 min read
On the Cusp of the Vacation: Everyday Magic, Day 945
At this moment, the car is packed except for the vitamins, which would melt. The gas tank is full. I have a little cash in my wallet, and...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jul 4, 20183 min read
Annual Pilgrimage to Our Patron Saint: Mary Chapin Carpenter: Everyday Magic, Day 944
This year Kelley Hunt and I trekked to Wichita for a long day’s night to the Wabi Sabi (beautiful, decaying, and full of soul and...

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Feb 25, 20184 min read
Recipes From (and For) the Journey: Everyday Magic, Day 930
No surprise that food looms large in all my memoirs and novels, whether it’s the hunt for the best fried chicken in Kansas (in the...