“Heavy, heavy, heavy, hanging over your head. What are you going to do with it?” Thus we annually chanted as children, holding the birthday child’s gift over his or her head (or, when it really was heavy, forcefully pressing the thing down on the his or her skull), until it was… Read full post »

Something a little more pleasant than the post-storm photos.     

Have a good day.  

Words and pictures © 2011 AtHome Pilgrim.

All Rights Reserved.   Read full post »

Not surprisingly, the surprising pre-Halloween snow storm was more than just a freakish visitor; it was also a destructive house guest. Trees still in leaf hold more icy snow than do bare branches. I don’t really know anything about trees (along with all the other things I don’t know anyt… Read full post »

It’s not even Halloween yet, for heaven’s sake!!!    

Oh, well, at least I wo… Read full post »

As a teen, my uncle became a Lutheran because a particular church had the best local baseball team. It’s not clear to me that he ever actually set foot in the church, but I’d be willing to bet anything that he never missed an inning. 

As a retiree, he started playing… Read full post »

And so I labor under uncertainty here at the keyboard, torn between describing this dark night of the soul (ah, you should read those discards—very moving, very clever) and trying to use words to nudge myself toward the light, between baring my sorry soul and trying to bear my spirits upwards,… Read full post »

If the eight position players had the guts of Doc Halladay, we’d have swept.

Hell, if two of the eight position players had the guts of Doc Halladay, we’d have swept. 

If Cliff Lee hadn’t blown a 4-0 lead, we’d have swept. 

If I’m Ryan Howard, I’m buying… Read full post »

First, though, an appreciation. Four weeks ago, everybody was lamenting the absence of a compelling pennant race, except in the NL West, where the San Francisco Giants were jockeying with Arizona Diamondbacks and, mildly, in the AL West, where the Wherever-They’re-From Angels had a ghost of a c… Read full post »

I don’t usually post videos, but I couldn’t resist with this one. The piece is short—just three minutes—and, I think, sweet. A teaching for the day, with a bit of humor and a lot of wisdom. Not heavy, but profound. 

“Why do I spent so ma… Read full post »

It is a gray day, the sky absent of color—a 10-percent gray screen, the kind that makes a bland one-color book printed on cheap paper look even duller because by smudging the crisp edges of black type, not a good strong 80-percent sky, promising rolling thunder and a cleansing rain (then,… Read full post »

Morning fog hugs world
Still air envelops branches
Burned by rising sun

War fog crashes loud
Tumult, jagged edges, pain
Burned by raging fear
 

Confusion of mind
Jolts, rocks, assails, unhinges,
Burned by nagging doubts

      Words © 2011 AtHome Pilgrim.

All Rights Res… Read full post »

Two years ago today, my brother died. Today, he speaks; hear his voice.  

Souvenirs
Across the sea to keep ‘em free; send the first team in.
Won’t take long; them Viet Cong ain’t never gonna win.
Home-grown boys with deadly toys, trained to fever pitch;
But dressed in b… Read full post »

Now comes new season for no good reason,
Indian summer days just made to tease ‘un.
Yes, fall has colors bright and slanting light,
Tempting playoff delights deep into night.
Autumn, withal, makes Pilgrim’s spirits fall
When acute shadows fall across the wall,
When closed window locks confi… Read full post »

10.       The wild turkey. Not the drink, the bird. I mean, a football on legs with a featherless head for a handle? You gotta have a sense of humor to create that. Well, OK, the ostrich. The only creature more bizarre looking than the wild turkey. And penguins, the marr… Read full post »

No words today. Just pictures.  

&n… Read full post »

Welcome to Nature’s shower stall, once known as the Delaware Valley. August 2011 was, we are told (and are not shocked to hear), the wettest month in history. Not the wettest August, mind you. The month wetter than all the wettest Aprils with their promising showers and all the nasty Februarys… Read full post »

Hi AtHomePilgrim,A Comment has been made to your blog http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=1427350#post_comments.
Go and check it out! 

(Works like chocolate.)  

Words © 2011 AtHome Pilgrim.

All Rights Reserved. Read full post »

Scattered cars errand early,

cruising freely on drive that

soon will be more stop than go.

Steady oars break smooth water,

rhythmic dip disturbs calm air,

scullers mindful of muscle.

Walker passes stray joggers,

lightly trodden path mere… Read full post »

. . . When (Monday evening about 8:00) and Where (in the supermarket parking lot) and How (Dead Battery) It Did. 

1.         If it had died last week, we’d have been forced to spend Mrs. P’s few days off dealing with it, or we would have been r… Read full post »

Late-morning sun streamed in the window, lighting patches of skin that were not covered by a piece of sheet or a part of the other’s limb. Both were purring, a languorous, synchronized hum, as the gentle air cooled their recently heated bodies, the scent of honeysuckle from outside mingling wit… Read full post »

A heavily reworked first version: 

The double morning rush (more stumbling really):
Strapping youths loop bags over necks,
Hands free for reading, hanging on
(Simultaneous departure a rare event . . .             

Morning rush: boys… Read full post »

May 21, 2009 5:39 p.m.

Where I Live, and What I Live For (with apologies to HDT) 

Last year, after many years of overwork and high-on-the-“quantify-your-stress”-chart family changes, I took my wife’s suggestion to address my long-neglected spirit. I read daily in some of… Read full post »

Think of the gleaming steel, glass, and plastic visions of the future that populate many science fiction movies and novels—the heavenly airiness of Sky City of The Empire Strikes Back, the constant bustle of the multileveled city planet Coruscant in the awful Stars Wars prequel trilogy, or (mor… Read full post »

“It was like a graduation,” the twenty-year-old woman said. It was the graduation they’d never had—until yesterday. 

Yesterday, Mrs. P and her colleagues hosted a celebration honoring a couple dozen of the adult students who had taken classes or attended tutoring sessions… Read full post »