P is for.....

Plugging away at Wordplay (get it - plugging - for P).....

Pennies - "Find a penny, pick it up, all day long, you'll have good luck." If it's heads up. If it's tails, turn it over and leave it for someone else to find.

Peter - my ex-husband. Also my ex-father-in-law and a really gentle, sweet man.

Paul - my father. I didn't actually know his name was Paul until I was five or six. Everyone called him Zeke. I thought that was his first name - it was really just a derivative of his last name. He passed away when I was in my mid30's and yet I often feel he's still near by me.

Pratchett, Pullman - two of my favorite authors.

Practical Magic - one of my favorite movies. It's about witches, which is always fun. But more so because it's about the power of love. Plus, there's that house. I want that house. And lastly, gotta love the midnight tequilas scene. "Put the lime in the coconut...."

Pizza - not that I love pizza so much. I like it. Sure. I'll have a veggie supreme please. It's more about the fact that with five children participating in team sports from the age of five on up through forever, I've been to more pizza parties then any one person can bear.

pentacle - earth, air, fire, water, spirit - everything is bound together - everything affects everything else

pagan - that's me. A fairly general term to describe my spiritual belief system. The gist of it comes pretty parallel with the theories of quantum mechanics. I believe at the deepest levels that there really is no difference between the physical world and the spiritual world, the known nd the unknown, the manifest and the possibility. It's both scientific and sacred together and at the same time and yes, that makes perfect sense to me. I throw an anthropomorphic skin or two over it for the fun of it, to make it more understandable and accessible, but I believe the real "God" is not a "person" or an "entity". It's just "EVERYTHING." Throw in a little residual Catholicism and a good handful of Zen Buddhism and there you have me.

peaches - millions of peaches, peaches for me, millions of peaches, peaches for free..... peaches come in a can, they were put their by a man in a factory downtown........gonna move to the country, eat a lot of peaches, move to the country, eat a lot of peaches....... several "peachy" songs are special to me. Remind me of Joshua and Sam. Fond memories of sweet boys on the cusp of adolescence. Memories of being elbow deep in peaches. Sticky, sticky peaches.

Plunkett - my grandmother, a family name on my mother's side. We're actually related to a Catholic saint- Saint Plunkett.

Peedee - the little town where we bought property in Oregon

pasta - there's a old stand up comedy bit about women needing good friends, sex, and pasta. But not necessarily in that order. And if you don't agree, then you've never had good..... pasta. True, so true. Forget diamonds. Pasta is a girl's best friend.

people watching - I love to people watch. I can sit at a restaurant or park, in the bleachers, walk down a street.... and watch the world of humanity be tender, silly, stupid, bizarre. The best show on the planet, and cheap too.

pancakes, peaches (already said that), parsnips, peppers (hot or mild), potatoes (white or sweet), pasta (said that too), pilaf, polenta - yummy foods

paradox - the older I get, the more I can live with the idea that two opposing points can both be correct. In fact, if this weren't true, perhaps the world would seem two-dimensional and boring

password - does anyone else live in fear of forgetting all the damn passwords they've been forced to create online, at their bank, for their cell phone...... ahhhhh!

peace - Yes, please. Namaste.

persnickety - so, I'm a bit high maintenance. I'm worth it.

phoenix - it might be trite symbolism, but it's still a powerful symbol of rising out of the ashes of misfortune and pain. Rebirth is always good for the developing soul.

photography - I've got a Niiiiiikon camera, love to take my phoooooo-tographs! I bet I'm not the first one to use this line for Wordplay, eh?

piecrust - I could make a mean pie crust in my youth. I was inordinately proud of that skill. In later years I sort of "forgot" how. Now I can make a decent crust again, but I don't make one often as I don't need all that extra butter.

pinon - how do you make that little squiggly line over the middle n? Grrrrr! I could get the squiggly line, or the n, but not both together. Anyhoo, imagine the squiggly line there - I love the smell of pinon pine burning in the air - harkens back to my years living in New Mexico. Love the pine nuts too - crunch, crunch, yum

pirates - ARGHHHH! Shiver me timbers! Yo ho ho! Of course there's the whole Pirates of the Carribbean pirate frenzy. But I'm also a member of a group of textile artists who use the pirate moniker with great silliness and flare.

pockets - what child doesn't love pockets - lots and lots of pockets. Secret pockets are even better. Well, I never outgrew the love of a handy pocket. When I went to England, I brought a lightweight raincoat with a zillion pockets and I used each and every one of them.

poetry - I write it. I read it. It feeds the soul in a way that's more direct then prose.

Prose - not that I knock the longer, more formal form of writing. In fact, I'm pretty longwinded by nature, so prose comes in real handy for the likes of me.

pregnant - I've been pregnant many times in my life. It's been an multi-faceted experience for me - full of every emotion known to womankind - fear, pain, wonder, awe, curiosity, love, awkwardness, anger, tenderness. Pregnancy can make you feel as elemental as an earthworm and as sacred as an angel, both at the same time.

Puff the Magic Dragon - I've always loved this song, but it became special to me when William insisted on falling asleep to Peter, Paul and Mary's sad tale for over a year of his childhood

Paris - my new heart/home town.

play - don't forget to have fun. "The goal of all civilization, all religious thought, and all that sort of thing is simply to have a Good Time. But man gets so solemn over the process that he forgets the end." - Don Marquis (1878-1937)