Category: death
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Judge Wyndham’s Oak
[The Celtic Tree of Life. Source: Google search. CelticArtStudio.] Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening earth. ~~Tagore A few days ago, my friend, Tim, asked me if he had ever taken me to see Judge Wyndham’s Oak. I said that I have no recollection of such a visit. He said,…
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Breakfast in Marrakech/Dinner in London
[Trafalger Square, London. The National Gallery of Art in the background. A fast car in the foreground. A lion and a blue-lit fountain in the middle ground. Photo is mine.] Keep calm and go to London… The title above makes it sound like it’s a skip and a flip to make the three and a…
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A Tale of Very Old Water Tunnels, Dying Palms & A Police Citation
[One of the many towns we encountered on our way west…toward Marrakesh. Photo is mine.] Traveling-it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~~ Ibn Battuta The Great Dunes are behind us. My dream of riding into the largest desert in the world has been fulfilled. I have no regrets, except for the…
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Is My Enchiridion Indulgentiarum Account Balanced?
[Purgatory. Credit: Shown Above] Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. ~~Patrick Egan Fantastical Essays v. 1 (2024) In Saranac Lake, New York, on a warm and humid day in 2017, an elderly woman crossed Church Street safely because of something Sister John James said to me in 1957. This was no small feat because…
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Anemonia Keeps Me Awake
Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out. ~~Richter [The Berlew Family Reunion. Orange, PA. September 6, 1926. Photo: Egan Family Archives.] I don’t think it rained that day. There are no clouds in the sky. I should know. I’ve crawled inside this photo more than once over the years. One…
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Dark Night/Dark Happenings
[A British tabloid. Photo: Google Search] I can’t Imagine… ~~ Patrick Egan It was 1980. I was teaching Oceanography and Earth Science at the Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. Monday, Dec. 8, was a normal day of classes. Late that afternoon, Parent/Teacher Conferences were scheduled. I was a new faculty member and somehow I scored…
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Someone Called My Name: A Halloween Story
Never respond to a whisper of your name when no one is there… ~~mi abuela {The narrative that follows is the truth. Some ghost stories start with this statement but it is often part of the fiction. It’s setting the reader up to ‘buy’ into the story–perhaps a willing suspension of disbelief. But, this little…
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Fifty-Six Years of Darkness
[Sinead O’Connor. Unknown date. Photo: Google Search.] This is probably the shortest blog I have or will ever post… I was propped up in bed on a warm afternoon. It was July 26, 2023. My iPhone was in my left hand and I making a stab at the New York Times crossword. It was a…
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Last Thoughts From The Cathedral Crypt
[One of the many small chapels in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. Photo is mine] I’m sitting with Mariam in a small chapel in the crypt of this amazing Cathedral. There are several reasons why I’m sitting here on a small very hard wooden chair. One is that the temperature is probably close to 65º…
patrickjegan 