Laura W. Jodice

My grandmother once told me a story that was told to her when she was a young girl, as a way to convince her to eat (as a side note, as a child, she and her friends used to pluck tar from newly laid road and chew the tar like gum). I was about six and a very picky eater, never wanting to eat all the food on my plate, and really afraid of ham. The story was about a girl who never ate and became so paper thin that one day a gust of wind blew her away. When she told me the story

My mother was often looking for her pen. “Where is my pen?! Who took it? Why do none of you ever put it back where you found it?” I had 3 brothers and then my father who were the possible culprits, aside from me. She used her pen to do the New York Times crossword puzzle, everyday, completely committed to every answer, because she did it in pen. Whatever her pen was on any given day was whatever pen she was using (ie, it wasn’t always the only pen in the house). Often it was

I was reading about a storm and had to stop mid sentence. I started reflecting on when I was sailing on Long Island Sound, in the western part, across from the NYC skyline, and we were caught in a squall. I think I experienced this multiple times, in a Dyer Dow, the dingy we first learned to sail when I was 11; a Blue Jay (13.5 feet with a main and jib), in which 2 other girls and I, age 12, won some junior regatta awards; and in a 210, a 30ft racing boat with a keel and a po

Hanging out on the beach near the pool My earliest experiences in the water were in the bathtub, with someone, a parent or baby sitter watching over me. In the summer, when I was young, we swam at a beach club on Long Island Sound. Swimming in the sound wasn’t my favorite because then I was scared of the marine critters, but I loved the pool. At age 3, I really loved the “baby pool” which was a fairly large half circle about waist high deep for kids that age. We would run, po

Everyday in summer she swam laps, in the deep end, in the morning, while the pool was quite and still, around 730 or 8 am. When it wasn’t summer, she swam in the indoor YMCA pool near our neighborhood. The summer pool was at the beach club where our family and grandparents and neighbors were members. She was a neighbor, only 2 houses down from ours, and often invited me and other kids, in for fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. We often played in the street, in front of her

It’s ok to do nothing. Every day or any day or any time of day can have a nothing part. That’s ok. Watching tv, staring at a flower,...

I am in Kindergarten class, with Mrs Kroll. My favorite activities are puzzles (the wooden kinds with like 15 pieces; if i practice a puzzle and then sit with her to show her I can do the puzzle, I get a star, 10 puzzles gets me a bigger gold star) and painting. Today we can do painting. The usual colors are yellow, blue and red, and sometimes she mixes up some green. It’s poster paint, in Dixie paper cups, on the tray of a large easel with big pieces of paper. Whoever is pai

I just arrived home from school. I’m in the 4th grade. My daily walk home is about a mile and is mostly on sidewalks (involving not...

In 2011 I started a Scales of Fairness blog. I decided to archive it here with a few edits. This blog is about the scales of fairness. Imagine an old balance if you like where there is weight on both sides. Here is a start at a list of the things that could be discussed: Right to Fish Water rights Women’s rights Things you learned in the sand box Sibling rivalry (from the sibling or parent perspective) Establishing equity and fairness in the work place Economic perspectives

She asked, “What is your earliest memory?” I think it was while we were laying on the beach in Maine, near where the estuarine river,...

As part of my DNRS brain retraining, my coach reminds me to "put it in a box". This is a way of storing a problem/issue and planning a...

Some, well many actually, of us are here to tackle the grit, provide support, fix the cracks, share learned wisdom and truth, express gratitude, basically create the embracing environment, so the “wheels” (even if it’s only the wheels of others who get glory and celebrated recognition [2026 note: but it could be anyone’s wheels…it doesn’t have to be only the celebrated because we are all of value]) can easily move and run freely, and that’s an important job because without th

I think my favorite flower is yarrow. It comes in lots of different colors, but the first yarrow I met was white, and I learned, from the same person who helped me with earthworm trust, to distinguish it from Queen Anne’s Lace (which by the way has a purple flower in the center of all the white). The different possible colors of yarrow remind me of the Speedo bathing suit I had when I was young. It had all sorts of flowers of different colors (see photo). In those days it wa

I woke up in the middle of the night and crafted an elaborate essay in my head about earthworms and two trauma persons. I’m not going to...

When I was 10, my parents enrolled my older brother and me in summer sailing camp. The first day my group of girls was taught in Dyer...

A few weeks ago I completed my mini ABCs of Fish journal. I started this project in March, 2020, as a way to have smaller watercolor...

In the past few weeks, the leaves on the maple tree in front of the neighbor’s house have been a vibrant orange and yellow, but that tree...

I am trying posting on the mobile app. Here’s a photo I took today. It’s a lizard that is normally bright green I guess this is it‘s...

A blog seems like a good idea. I have another blog I started anonymously about 8 years ago, but let's let that go for now. Here is some...

First watercolor - Dogwood branch