Mary Dansak

On this chilly November morning, I find myself staring out the window of my home office thinking about birds’ nests. Just beyond our precious wooded acre I can see cars, bright bursts of color, whiz by through a small opening between branches. A busy thoroughfare, cutting through land now carved beyond recognition, borders our neighborhood.

My parents divorced when I was 12, which altered our family traditions significantly. Crashed is more like it. Take Thanksgiving, for example.

Tomorrow, December 13, is a day to celebrate one of my favorite animals, one that has shaped and reshaped my life for the better. Move over dogs, my favorite animal

“I have a thing for Advent calendars,” our friend Susan explained as we oohed and aahed over her many varied ways of counting down the days. From the Harry Potter

Two weeks before Christmas I received a most welcome message on my phone. “Looks like we’ve got a baby,” it read, accompanied by a video of a brand-new baby donkey,

I've traveled with this planet on 60 revolutions around the sun now and I've learned a thing or two on this wonky ride. For instance, I know I'm not going to suddenly become a better person just because the year on my calendar has a new number in the ones place. Still, dreams hold fast. Maybe 2025 will be the year I finally get my house clean and find some system to keep it that way.

As if the crash following the festive frenzy of Christmas and New Years coupled with the arrival of true wintry weather isn't enough to bring on the blues, we recently learned that the orca Tahlequah is once again carrying around the body of a newly deceased calf. We watched in 2018 as she toted her dead baby for 17 days in the Salish Sea, profoundly moved even amidst a world of human suffering. To see her grieving another lost child feels too much to bear.

It sure has been cold lately. Not cold enough to snow, sadly, but cold enough to stay hunkered down on the couch with the dogs, warming paws and toes and reading by a fire in the fireplace. Cold, but not that cold. Not COLD cold.

As this cold winter lingers, my mind drifts to my favorite coastal community, Edisto Island, SC. I conjure the smells and sounds of walking on the mucky shore of the

Joe and I braved the swerving cars and the snarling tangle of I-85 to drive into Atlanta last weekend to a Hot Tuna concert. A refresher, Hot Tuna is the legendary duo comprised of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, founding members of Jefferson Airplane, who formed their own band in 1969. As expected, Variety Playhouse was packed with devoted fans, young and old (mostly old) alike.