Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

  • Saying goodbye, saying thank you

    My lovely mother Irene died almost three weeks ago. I’ve written about her many times. At 99, she was still lively, playing the piano, discussing politics, enjoying poetry. Her mental sharpness belied her frailty.

    I had the deep privilege of being with her for the two weeks before she passed.

    I had no prior experience in this part of human life and as meaningful as it was, it sapped all my energy.

    In the weeks since, I haven’t known what to write and so I haven’t written. But then the universe gave me a small nudge in the form of a friendly note from a reader who liked a thing I’d written about energy: The energy well. It was a good reminder that rest is required after energy is spent. While I’m refilling my well, here are some of things I wrote about Irene. She remains an inspiration.

    Still practicing at 96: https://susanpalmer.org/2022/01/07/a-musical-pact-with-a-96-year-old/

    Her love of reading: https://susanpalmer.org/2022/11/23/my-curious-mother/

    Learning about Islam: https://susanpalmer.org/2024/10/18/life-long-curiosity/

    Delving into poet Christina Rosetti: https://susanpalmer.org/2025/01/07/staying-curious/

    Lifting weights at 99: https://susanpalmer.org/2025/01/09/quality-of-a-life/

  • Back to basics

    Traveling again, I’m relying on Nia On Demand, to get my dancing fix. Many of my Nia pals have told me they haven’t felt inspired to do the online routines, and I get that. Dancing with others is such a joy.

    But my body does better when I dance regularly and on the road I rarely find Nia studios. When I do, they rarely work with my schedule.

    I am pretty excited by this new-to-me routine, Soar, with Megan MacArthur. The mix of steps and upper body moves is so different from what I’ve grown comfortable with that I’ve had to fall back on my earlier learning strategies. I’m focused for now on just getting the footwork into my brain and not thinking much about upper body. And I’m also doing the 60-minute routine in small bites of 20 minutes, so I can learn my way in. My body, my way.

    I know it’s good when I’m in a room by myself dancing and suddenly feel the big grin on my face.

  • Now for the birds

    barnacle geese
    hooded crow
    white wagtail

    In restrospect, I wish I’d brought my binoculars to Sweden, because we stumbled upon so many birds I’d never seen before and some I’d never heard of.

    The hooded crow stopped me dead in my tracks. I mean, you know it’s some kinda corvid, just from its shape. But the two-tone coloring, light gray and black, was neat.

    Then the barnacle geese, another unfamiliar species, that were hanging out in a park and staking out space just anywhere, like their cousins from Canada. And, uh, who named them? Cornell’s “All About Birds” blames a medieval myth that they hatched from barnacles.

    My photo of the white wagtail is too blurry to appreciate the little guy, but think of a chickadee only slightly bigger. These were in all the Stockholm parks we visited and tended to scurry about on the gravel walkways.

    Many other birds we only heard, and thanks to a phone app that identifies bird calls we knew we were in the presence of Eurasian siskins, Eurasian blackbirds, common chaffinches and wood warblers.

    And there were at least two kinds of grebes we spotted from a distance, the red-necked grebe and the great crested grebe.

    Also swans. So many on the waterways all around the archipelago. Cygnus swans, I think, with their adorable little cygnets strung out behind them.

    We are home now. And two overwhelming sense memories from this trip involve a wonderful chorus of birds in the forests we walked through during our hiking days in the archipelago and the sumptuous aroma of lilacs pervading whenever we were near gardens.