E530 - Wendy A Horwitz - Author of Milkweed and Honey Cake - A Memoir in Ritual Moments

Episode 530 - Wendy A Horwitz - Author of Milkweed and Honey Cake - A Memoir in Ritual Moments

Raised in small-town Connecticut, educated in public schools, then Harvard and Temple Universities, I’ve had a mixed metaphor of a career. I’ve been a (happy) fish out of water: a doctoral student in psychology with an undergraduate history degree; a psychologist in pediatric medicine; a clinician among academic scholars; a social scientist working with English professors, engineers, and philosophers; a writer teaching medical students. 

But I promised a mixed metaphor. My life is also an improvised, patchwork quilt of pieces gathered from sojourns in Costa Rica, Israel, Gambia, Provence, Ecuador, and the best, continuous journey of all--being a mom. Now, I teach writing workshops on Cape Cod and in Philadelphia. I’m a haphazard birder and a passionate observer of butterflies, unspoiled habitats, and turtles. Hiking, family, books, close friends, religious observance and secular ritual, music and dance: all lend my quilt color and sublime, if elusive patterns. And I’m still working on it, with clumsy stitches that depict me starting to learn the piano, and along the rough edge, a new design for my next book.

In Milkweed and Honey Cake: A Memoir in Ritual Moments, Wendy A. Horwitz shares stories about celebration, loss, change, and the best way to open a pomegranate.

Holidays delight – and disappoint. A couple marrying in the pandemic finds a surprise after a rainstorm, and a topsy-turvy search for a gravestone honors her ancestors. When a graduation is cancelled, Horwitz serves pomp and circumstance on the front porch, and through the shifting seasons of a life, amid the scramble of pet guinea pigs and birthday parties, her children add wonder and comedy to tradition.

With observations from nature, religion, and literature, Horwitz explores how ritual can exalt ordinary moments and frame the extraordinary. A blue heron, an old cupboard's scent, and the lingering feel of an engagement ring long gone prompt reflections laced with yearning and humor. Guiding us along a wooded path, to the kitchen table, in a messy garden, and under a tent reverberating with song, she traces the boundaries of ritual, considering what we do when ritual falls short, and how we might adapt each other's practices. And when the wider world seems broken, new rituals provide hope.

Lyrical and funny, thought-provoking and deeply moving, Milkweed and Honey Cake is at once a meditation on our desire for meaning and the story of a woman's lifelong efforts to create it

https://www.wendyhorwitzauthor.com/