Virginia Buckingham

I stumbled across the ABC special “Pretty Baby” the other night and came away with a profound respect for the actress Brooke Shields and an unexpected reinforcing of a lesson it can take a long time to learn: the past doesn’t have to be prologue — the most important factors in determining your future are ultimately your own choices. (If you missed it, the special has been streaming on Hulu since April.) It’s probably more fair to say I have a renewed respect for Shields.…

If I had a nickel for every time my family rolls their eyes when I say, “trust the universe,” I guess I’d just have a pile of nickels, given that their value wouldn’t get me too far in these inflation-riddled times. However, I do. Trust the universe, that is. And I find as I grow older I do so particularly in times of transition, planned and not. First, what do I mean by the phrase? As one who bristles at the notion that “everything happens…

I know that the term interregnum is typically defined as the period of time between royal reigns. But it keeps popping into my head as the right word to describe this brief interlude between Thanksgiving and the start of the heart of the Christmas season. Many, especially those of you who put the tree up the minute the turkey carcass has been picked clean, would argue that the Christmas season is already in full swing, it is December after all. And last weekend’s Christmas Walk…

Lest I be accused of being obsessed with fire, let me share that one of us eight Buckingham siblings once played with matches and lit a neighbor’s yard on fire and subsequently ran away from home. That sibling was not me! But if not obsessed, I am indeed, let’s call it, enthralled. Last year around this time I wrote a column about embracing the onset of early darkness. Wearing it like a cozy blanket. My theory was that if my attitude was one of welcoming…

Initially, I planned to entitle this column “Don’t look away.” The topic is the toll of consuming news during these painful times in the country and the world. And the importance of staying informed, and bearing witness.   I still believe those things are important. I also have come to understand that taking a break from doing so preserves our energy to engage at all. I’m a daily newspaper reader and have noted in the past that Twitter (or that platform now known as X)…