Category Archives: Family

My Amtrak Odyssey

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Mary Jo Doig

My sister Bonnie and I had planned for weeks to meet on Long Island, where our other sister, Jackie, lives in a group home in Riverhead. I was coming as a surprise for Jackie on her 73rd birthday. Bonnie, spending … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Family, Kindness, Mother Nature | 11 Comments

Two decades ago, when life tugged me away from the little Catskill Mountain town where I’d hoped to live out my days, many years passed before I realized how much of my heart remains there and how much of Bovina … Continue reading →

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig | 8 Comments

Glorious Autumn Harvest Muffins

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig

Between working on my memoir, taking long and lovely autumn walks on quiet country roads with Addie, time with family, my lovely writing circle, reading, and the many other things I love to do, I realized this morning as I … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal friends, Family, Health, In the Kitchen, Nurturance | 6 Comments

Addie’s Journal – Chapter 2

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig

Flower, the adoption counselor, had emailed the evening before Polly and I visited the shelter, a note that well-prepared me for the visit. I’ll bring some boiled chicken for you to give her and I’ll have a little stool in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal friends, Courage, Family, Grace, Gratitude, Kindness, Mystery, Peacefulness | Leave a comment

Leaving Las Vegas

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig

I’m flying home to Virginia at an altitude of 10,000 feet and climbing. As my eyes drink in the sight of the gorgeous desert mountain below, I feel I want never to forget what I am seeing. I silently whisper, … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Family, Glioblastoma, Grace, Health, Mother Nature, Mystery | 5 Comments

April the second

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig

I wake slowly into this Sunday morning and lay still, thinking of earlier years on April the second. This is the day my former in-laws married nearly a century ago. I think of all the ways their union interfaced with … Continue reading →

Posted in Bovina Stories, Family, Gifts, Grace, Gratitude, Living Mindfully, Mother Nature, Mystery, Peacefulness, Simplicity | 6 Comments

About Tribes

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It’s time for that to end. … Continue reading →

Posted in A Wonderful Book, Book Reviews, Community, Compassion, Courage, Family, Friendship, Grace, Mystery | 2 Comments

The Cat’s in the Cradle

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

I walk past my oldest antique, a cradle that my grandmother, Edna Cartwright Davis, born in the late 1800s, slept in as an infant. When she grew out of it, someone carried it upstairs into an attic where it remained … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal friends, Bovina Center, NY, Stories, Change, Childhood, Family, Friendship, Grace, Quilts | 5 Comments

One Wedding Ring – A Quilt Story

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

Wedding rings have been on my mind the past few days, with an abundant arc of images ranging from the simplest of bands to the most glamorous and sophisticated rings passing through my mind. Why wedding rings? Am I getting … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Mystery, Quilts | 9 Comments

Ordinary Grace

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

This afternoon I read Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, a book that took me to a small town, New Bremen, Minnesota in 1961, where complex tragedy strikes a small family and ripples through the community in astonishing ways. Krueger … Continue reading →