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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
One Good Day in May
We bounce in our seats, our tires roll across the sand and dirt of our rural roads.Spring air swirls and sunshine dances with cumulus clouds.The back window creaks a sing-song melody. It’s a good day in May. It’s ordinary.No startling sensation. No splashy show.No monumental news or magnificent next thing. Boring, some might say.Perhaps they’re […]
A Counting and Accounting
Through the years…..of rhythms and routines, settledness and unsettledness, change and consistency, counting and accounting, here are a few numbers and notations that have been part of who we are, formed our family, find us standing here today. It’s fun to list.It’s notable to take note.There’s story in reflection. A shallow deep dive that barely […]
Every Critical Journey
I wonder….. What worried you last week?What weight are you carrying?What condemnatory comments cling to you, corroborate the character flaws your inner critic recapitulates over and over until it spins your soul in seditious circles and lands you in the dismal land of dissonance? What sinks you?What stress assails you?What pressed, pressed, pressed, until the […]
Our Right Now Days
Life is breathtakingly beautiful, ablaze with incandescent brilliance AND simultaneously achingly haunting and hard and hopeless. Melodramatic, maybe. Yet also a maxim of truth. Wonder stops us in our tracks with a blaze of glory.Wonder waits with impatience asking when. Faith offers firm footing.Faith frustrates us with uncertainites we can’t define. Delight dwells in hidden […]
I Hope April Hugged You
I hope April hugged you in warmth and comfort.I hope it bloomed for you in tulip red and daffodil yellow and hyacinth pink.I hope pansies pinpointed your pathway and peonies swayed with promise. Maybe April was lonely for you, the days long, gray, shadowy.Perhaps there were tears or an unexplained sadness you couldn’t shake.Angst held […]
Wherein We Muse On The Beauty of Togetherness
The beauty of a little coffeeshop surrounds me.Music plays from the speakers.One song, then another for an estimated hour and a half.We sip chai lattes with whip. Vanilla for my daughter. Spicy with espresso for me.We chat.Loop letters onto envelopes and attach stamps and stickers.Together. A few locals enter and exit the small-town shop.They all […]