Live it out, little one.Step into story, your story. Think of your favorite characters and the why.What unfolds, enfolds, finds us where it counts. What we consume will consume us. Character counts. Consequences cascade from choices made.Constraints can call us to attention. Restraint grows self-control. Leaning in to listen lends to learning and sturdy confidence […]
I Want To…
I want to wear linen overalls and pad through the house in easy fashion.I want to walk barefoot across the soft carpet in our living room, curl my toes in, feel the texture.I want to fluff pillows, fold throw blankets, raise the blinds and welcome in the sunshine. I want to froth milk in my […]
A Short Story: Reflections on Birthdays and Becoming
The sun hit the glass this morning with a confetti halloo and a bounce of excitement. Ok. Maybe it was me who had the bounce of excitement, but the sun seemed to share it. It’s my birthday after all. While our relationships with age and aging can be volatile and varied, I have always loved […]
What If….
What if…..the days and minutes allowed us a bit more space to sit with wonder….to wander through August….to read during the sweltering afternoons and stretch the summer evenings into places to ponder? What if….we wrote out gratitude lists and also acknowledged the hovering anxiety lodged in our body….. became curious rather than critical…..searched for the […]
The Reverberation of Farmlife
The heat and humidity move across the land as living things. The heavy air sits stolid and somber causing our clothes to stick the moment we step on the threshold. The wind buffets us in suffocating waves and we move slowly and sluggishly across the yard. The sprinkler tic-tic-tics parting the pallid atmosphere. The dogs […]
Come. Sit. Be a Person.
Tap on the door and come quietly in.Come. Sit. Be a person.For mostly we stumble around.Step. Trip. Berate our sense of being.We’re often lost; occasionally found.Fog. Afraid. Question every direction. Pull up your chair and exhale into peace.Breathe. Ease. Slip into your soul.Stress tries to rue the day.Clench. Knot. Neck muscles run rigid.Humiliation runs rampant.Ache. […]
Clear Mind, Peaceful Heart and a Starbucks Giveaway
As July wanes into August and heat swirls and summer radiates a sunbaked haze, we nudge the a/c down a notch, fill up Stanley cups with ice and water, and send the sprinklers through another rotation. Early morning welcomes coffee on the porch, a chapter or two, and a bit of quiet contemplation before the […]
A Win
Letters form words beneath my thumbs. I tap the green arrow and my question flies into the multiverse of messages. Across the state and across the country my friends’ phones light up with my query. What’s a win for you this week? Later in the day I tap my keyboard and share my wins in […]
Who Will We Find Inside?
She looks at me and I look at her.So very, very familiar, and also foreign. Some days she seems a completely different person. For the actuality is, she is…and she isn’t. I wander through a corridor of memories.Ponytails, lopsided, looped with elastics crossed over the bright blue balls at each end.First grade. Frightened. Sixth grade. Sick […]
A Work Unto A Harvest
Day by day, growth is seldom noticed.Growth is gradual. Silent and slow. Invisible as it inches upward.There’s not much to measure…until there is. Fields of wheat offer a fisted bouquet of metaphors.So much symbolism set forth among seeds.Preparation and planting, toil and soil, waiting and hoping, gathering and reaping. And somewhere in the process, the […]
Stopping By Fields On a Harvest Afternoon
*my apologies to Robert Frost Whose fields these are I think I know.His house sits there across the road.And we are in the combine here.To watch it cut row after row. We knew that harvest hovered near The cycle of another year. With sweeping fields of golden grainAnd cloudless skies all blue and clear. The tractor trundles […]
Wherein We Consider the Betrayal of Ourselves
As I turn pages in the seventh chapter, I’m gripped by this proclamation. By the subsequent question. A wise and kind and thoughtful friend replies to the author’s inquiry.She offers reliable, gracious wisdom. “You’ve suffered three betrayals. More than any person should.” she says. I paraphrase my perception of the conversation found on page one […]
The Plot Twist of Redemption
An hour and a half left in my audiobook and I’ve succumbed to tears. It’s seven thirteen of the a.m. as my wheels hum on the highway.I’d kept secretly rooting for this character. I couldn’t quite explain why; he didn’t seem to deserve it. He sneers. He’s very unhelpful. Rather hateful. He belongs to the […]
The Compassion of Companioned Presence Without Pressure
The wind howls outside as it’s done all day. I am weary of it. It bears down hard as I step out the backdoor, my arms laden with bags and boxes.I wave at my nieces as I deliver supper to the wheat field. I greet them and tell them I feel quite complainy about the […]
The Backyard Beckoned a Beauty Hunt
The backyard beckoned a beauty hunt.I acquiesced as I fumbled for worn ebony flip-flops. Once outside, our June breeze swings friendly combat, gives challenge to the muggy air. The humidity wins and my t-shirt begins to cling to my back as the heavy air presses in on skin and the sun reappears in a hide-and-seek game […]
Pondering our Whats and Hows
What we believe impedes our lives or frees our lives.How we exert power expands our souls or shrivels them.Who we let speak into our stories brings us flourishing or finds us fading.How we process life either promotes growth or stunts our progress.What we strive for says something, tells a tale, forms our future.How we name […]