Virginia Buckingham - Marblehead Current

14 May

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Nests full

Will DowdOpinion, Virginia Buckingham

My backyard feathered friends are back in force, and wow, are they noisy. The cacophony of the birds in the morning is deafening and I love it. Welcome home! The author’s backyard is filled again with birds. CURRENT PHOTO / VIRGINIA BUCKINGHAM I use my birdsong-identifying Merlin app when I take our pup April out in the morning or evening to put labels to the competing noises. One recent sample of the backyard-bird-crew: House sparrow, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, Carolina wren, American robin, red-bellied woodpecker,…

30 Apr

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Rudi and me

Will DowdOpinion, Virginia Buckingham

One of the great joys of doing book talks is the opportunity to meet new people with fresh insights into your story. In turn, these talks sometimes can spark members of the audience to have new insights into their own lives. Both are gifts to the writer. And sometimes I learn something related to my story but completely new altogether. That was the case at a book event held this spring in Florida. My friend and Marblehead neighbor invited me to a condo association fundraiser…

05 Feb

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Be like Ed

Will DowdColumns, Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

So much has been written and said about our friend Ed Bell, that I don't think anything I could add about his kindness and character is worthy. So instead, I am going to focus on this lesson, of many, I learned from him: Live to your very last breath. That sounds counterintuitive, of course we breathe until we don't any longer. But that doesn't mean we're living purposely. Ed did — live purposely— every single minute of his 84 years. I didn't know him for…

22 Jan

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: On notice

Will DowdOpinion, Virginia Buckingham

I consider myself a pretty observant person. If you're wearing a new sweater, or just got your haircut, or re-arranged your living room artwork, I'm likely to notice and comment/compliment. If you're feeling out of sorts, or having a particularly bad (or good) day, I also tend to pick up on mood clues. I'm not talking about the buzzy "mindful" way of being, which I try and mostly fail at, just the normal everyday taking note of my surroundings, human and otherwise. Therefore, I'm a…

08 Jan

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Completely 2025

Will DowdColumns, Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

I'm not a student of numerology — the mystical belief in numbers having meaning beyond their, well, meaning. But when a friend told me recently that 2025, because its individual numbers add up to nine, is a year of completion, I found myself nodding — and Googling. In numerology, "the number nine holds a significant and powerful position. It symbolizes the idea of completion, though not necessarily finality. Instead, it signifies the conclusion of one phase, paving the way for the initiation of the next."…

25 Sep

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Third act

Will DowdColumns, Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

I'm not a podcast listener, preferring quiet when going about my day, doing chores, walking or driving somewhere. My sarcastic older brother, a podcast host himself — about squash, the sport, not the vegetable — would say I prefer the voices in my head to voices in my ear and he's not far off. So when a friend mentioned a podcast she was enjoying, I nodded and promptly forgot about it. She brought it up again, specifically one episode that was helpful in reframing these…

17 Jul

The great beach read debate

liag13542Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

“I want to be able to understand the novel half-drunk on rosé. The sentences should breeze by like a handsome man on a Vespa on the Montauk Highway.” That’s how humorist Celeste Ballard described her summer reading preferences in a 2014 New Yorker piece. She lost me at “Vespa” and “Montauk Highway” but also got me thinking about what makes for a great summer read. And is what you pick to put in your beach bag really all that different from what lays next to…

10 Jul

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: An abundance of equanimity

Will DowdColumns, Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

Are you grateful for the bountiful blooms on the hydrangeas this year? Then, in part, thank last year's rainy July and August weekends. Like many, I've wondered why my hydrangea bushes are dripping with flowers and learned the cause was the previous summer's wet weather along with the mild winter. The combination of moist soil and moderate temperatures is promoting the prolific growth. I find it interesting that something we abhorred — rain on almost every summer weekend — is at least partly responsible for…

03 Jul

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: A beautiful algorithm

Will DowdColumns, Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

I had just about given up on Facebook. Most of the posts in my feed were ads for stuff I was not interested in. But I must have been interested in them at some point, searched or clicked on or paused on an image or video. And that behavior was fed into some big algorithm cruncher in the sky which resulted in ubiquitous ads for deck umbrellas (at one point I needed a new one), flattering swimsuit tops (always looking for those) and candles. Readers…

26 Jun

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Move slow

Will DowdColumns, Virginia Buckingham

Raise your hand if you are glad the season's first heat wave is over. I know some people thrive in oppressive heat, I'm married to one, but most of us reasonable types prefer to spend summer days outside, and that was nearly impossible for many last week. There was a benefit, though, to the high temperatures and humidity. It forced us to slow down, physically, and perhaps mentally, too. I remember several years ago walking by my family room window and noticing four or five…