Without knowing why, I started building paths in the yard. We've been on this property for six years, digging, clearing, planting. This spring, among the flowers, I saw path possibilities. Tiny ones. Path length doesn't matter. It's a way in and a way out, leading to a place ahead. And to a place inside yourself.…
Spring failed me for a long time this year. Snow fell far too long. Ground remained frozen. Cold killed a row of daffodils. Pounding weeks of rain delayed the landscaping project. My anticipation for spring's glorious colors, buried itself beneath the mulch. And it's just as well because life turned hectic. Editorial deadlines swamped me.…
I quickly lose interest in puzzles, especially mazes on paper. I get upset at all the choices. Stressed. Flummoxed. Discombobulated. Then I start drawing my way through, crashing blindly into one wrong turn after another. I think I see the way, only to discover I don't. I want off the page. My daughter Maggie approaches…
Have you ever wanted to give up? I mean surrender, with white flag waving, after trying your best and getting nowhere? Smashing into that brick wall and discovering it hasn't shifted a single inch? Plotting and planning a course forward and ending up farther behind? I have. After 3 months of revising a manuscript, I…
We finally moved into a house with a walk-in pantry. Cliff discovered this 1859 historical treasure had a flour bin, not that we planned on hitching up the wagon to fetch 100-pound sacks of the stuff. Just interesting. Our moves always involve a scramble of opening boxes, sometimes accurately labeled. Filling kitchen cabinetry was easy,…
When I assembled the lighted village for 2020, it was the same but different. No carolers, shoppers, Goodwill band, children building snowmen, or Santa. Even the man waiting on the park bench was absent. All were inside, sheltering in place, hoping to survive the pandemic. Like the three of us. Maggie was sent home in…
We all respond to certain sounds. Down the street from us, the village fire station blasts a siren for emergencies. Like it or not, we hear it loud and clear, as volunteers race to their post. Hardly front-line responders ourselves, our hearts beat with concern, nevertheless. Our neighbors Rob and Beth also stand ready, listening.…
I never knew about bucket lists until a movie came out with that title. Whenever people talk about their lists, traveling is usually involved. Exotic. Adventurous. I thought about that. I've been on a Mexican bus stopped at midnight by armed outlaws in the jungle. When they boarded, passengers shouted "Dos Gringos!" and pointed to…
Some people blow out candles and wish. Some people close their eyes and pray. Some people cross their fingers and hope. I watch everywhere, all the time, for three things. They rise up before me--these tiny miracles--tucked into ordinary settings. Had I been looking the other way, I would have missed them. But I wasn't.…
Several years ago, a young woman asked me the secret to a long marriage. As if I were a Wise Woman with a stone tablet. As if I were a Unicorn surrounded by a Truth and Beauty Rainbow. As if there is a secret. But now after 41 years of marriage, I can offer this.…
