Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

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Where is Home?

June 1, 2016 By Sandra Heska King

HOME

“I know it’s morbid, my daughter says, “but I’ve been thinking about it, and so I’ll ask. If you and Dad die, is there enough life insurance to fly you home and bury you?” She asks him the same question over the phone, and he assures her there is plenty and more. I tell her I don’t […]

Filed Under: Blog, poetry, stories

One Word Less For Lent 2015 – 11

March 24, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

  Sharing three 11-word poems today.     Still For someone who craves stillness, my life moves pretty fast still. Word Count: 11     Death and Life Kara passes A plane crashes And my lilac tips are pregnant. Word Count: 11 Note: A plane crashed in the French Alps this morning. I heard this during the […]

Filed Under: Blog, One Word Less for Lent - 2015, poetry

In Which Cancer Brings Clarity for David

November 18, 2014 By Sandra Heska King

UPDATE: David Landrith, pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church, joined Jesus in heaven this morning, November 18, 2014. He now rests in the shadow of the Amighty. Please continue to pray for his family and his church. I’m so sad today, yet grateful for the privilege of having just a small connection with his people, for having […]

Filed Under: Blog, stories

Cultivating Good In the Midst of Grief

November 14, 2014 By Sandra Heska King

create good

    She was my age, and also a nurse. She helped birth this place–a place where people could live out their last days in unforced rhythms of grace, where grief itself could cultivate good. I’m sure she never dreamed that she would be birthed to a new life from one of its beds. She was admitted the same […]

Filed Under: Blog, stories

move forward, bounce back, and press on

November 14, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

move forward

  I realized it just this morning. She was my age. She was also a nurse. Instrumental, I understand, in birthing this place. She was admitted the same day we were, to the room next door to ours. She’d done battle for 18 years. A bone marrow donor stood ready, but she could not bounce […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

sing a new song

May 17, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

new song

  Snow fell on Sunday. In May. On Mother’s Day. It frosted the tulips white. “My mother would not be happy today,” my sister posted on Facebook. “She wouldn’t even be amused.” And I doubt if even we could have made her crack a smile by bursting into song and dance, perhaps with a spring […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

the finger of God

May 1, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

I see God’s creative finger in all seasons. But never more, I think, than in the spring when life unfurls. These are the days when all that glitters is green. Yet life is sometimes blood-tinged like the color of death in this new leaf. That also carries the color of hope. Because life is in […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Crossing the Bridge

November 29, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

  Mom’s illness caused her fall and ultimately her death. Her younger sister passed on before. I don’t know when. I don’t know why. Theirs was a shattered relationship. Sometime after Aunt Lucy died, my cousin sought to reconnect with my parents. That’s how it is sometimes, I think. When we lose, we ache to […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Still Grappling with Grief

November 28, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

  One year ago yesterday, my mother died. I’m angry. And sad. And grateful. I’m remembering, second-guessing every decision. Immediately after her fall and diagnosis of a brain tumor, she spent several weeks in a local nursing home. She was not safe for surgery at that point. After the biopsy, she transferred to rehab where […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

31 Days on Coming to Grips with My Age ~ Day 3: A Lesson from the Leaves

October 3, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

God draped our woods with Jacob’s coat while I soul stripped on the edge of the Frio. The countryside explodes with color. “Aren’t the trees just beautiful? I can’t get over how they popped while I was in Texas.” Grace agrees. “But you know they’re dying, right? The colors mean they’re dying.” We’ve pulled into […]

Filed Under: 31 days 2012, stories and reflections

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I’m Sandra, a camera-toting, recovering doer who’s learning to be. still. Read more…

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sandraheskaking

A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana in the background until I downloaded the photos. That, I believe, is the one that got caught in one of the openings in the neighbor's chain link fence. We tried in several (safe) ways to dislodge it without luck and could think of no other option but to leave it. Somehow it apparently dislodged itself. We also believe this is the pair that was getting into another neighbor's garden. We haven't seen either one since the last cold snap, so we are wondering if they survived. 
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Thinking some may have tumbled from their perches last night. Pretty sure it will be raining iguanas tonight since we are under a frost advisory. It's cold. And windy.
Just sing... sing a song... Singing our way into Just sing... sing a song... 

Singing our way into the weekend.
"We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramse "We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramsey in Rembrandt is in the Wind
Now you see me... now you don't. Now you see me... now you don't.
"I started looking and listening. I realized that "I started looking and listening. I realized that work, like life, is shot through with poetry. It was everywhere. I was so taken with what I discovered that I wrote a book about it." @gyoung9751 
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Whether you work in an office, a retail store, a restaurant, or at home... Whether you work on roads or on power lines, or on high buildings...Whether you collect trash or preach sermons, or care for your kiddos. Whether you do art, or weave words, or take photos of a common gallinule AKA moorhen AKA swamp chicken--it's all shot through with poetry.
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So pay attention. Find a poem.
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Read more at https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2023/01/10/its-poetry-at-work-day-2023/
Rising… Rising…
Everyone needs a little balance in life. And maybe Everyone needs a little balance in life. And maybe a beauty routine. And breakfast. Especially breakfast. I wonder if it consists of a few fire ants. I hope so. (Well, not mine. I'm having oatmeal with chia seeds. What are you having this morning?)
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P.S. Happy Friday!
"Though your destination is not yet clear You can "Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening; Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning That is at one with your life's desire." ~John O'Donohue 
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A blessing for a new beginning in a new year. I'm sure he wrote it especially for me. At least I'm claiming it. Maybe it will speak to you, too.
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Also, I'd really like this skirt --> 
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Read the whole poem--> -->
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Well, bummer... The whole page didn't print. Read it in the comments below.
"What precocity, a bird half the size Of an Anjou "What precocity, a bird half the size
Of an Anjou pear." ~ Stephen Kuusisto in "The Mockingbird on Central" (Find it in The Poets Guide to the Birds edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser)
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"The morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery." ~ Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way. 
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I've been in a long creative drought, so I started morning pages--again. This time I've got a bit of an accountability group through @refineretreat's Refinery--which I finally also joined this year. I'll turn 74 this month. I'm not ready to grow old while I age--though everything does seem to take longer while time goes by faster.
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#aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Tonight’s walk in the neighborhood. I’m still Tonight’s walk in the neighborhood. I’m still kinda amazed that out of all the places we could have ended up after moving from a place I said I’d never move from), here we are—planted right next to the northern Everglades. Six-plus years, and I still shake my head in wonder.
"So fancy is the world..." ~ Mary Oliver in "This "So fancy is the world..." ~ Mary Oliver in "This World." #aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Look, Mom! I can walk on water! #aweandwonder #tsa Look, Mom! I can walk on water! #aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Gazing into 2023 like… Let’s take it step by Gazing into 2023 like… 
Let’s take it step by step with hope and courage. Also I hope to be posting again more often.
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Happy New Year!
The morning before the last morning of 2022. 🌴 The morning before the last morning of 2022. 
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71 degrees. Heading to 83. I can live with that.
From the top of Brasstown Bald—the highest point From the top of Brasstown Bald—the highest point in Georgia at 4784 feet.
Winding roads… Winding roads…
Tonight's moon. It's kinda okay. Tonight's moon. It's kinda okay.
Don’t mind me. Just storking by. Don’t mind me. Just storking by.
I’ve gotten several messages asking if things we I’ve gotten several messages asking if things were okay. Yes. I’ve recovered after 3 weeks in Covid jail. Also, I’ve been a bit scarce on social cuz we’ve been finishing up house renovations, and there is SO much that now needs to be cleaned and stuff put away. Also, we’ve had the second oldest grand with us for two weeks. I “should have” at least shared some stories about our adventures, but we’ve relished the time and kept busy. One can’t leave South Florida without a gator encounter, though, right? Tomorrow the two of us fly back to Michigan, and then I will spend a week with my sister where I expect I will be put to work in the chicken house and the gardens and become a glad(iola) roadside proprietor for a day at the Four Star in while she and my BIL attend a family reunion. I’ll also get to see my dad in the nursing home and spend a couple nights with my daughter. D will hold down the fort here. Then maybe by the first of next month, I’ll be able to finish putting things in order, breathe, find some writing space and get back to normal. Whatever that is.
I tossed and turned all night. And then the storm I tossed and turned all night. And then the storm started. I finally got up about 5ish and sat outside to watch. Until a couple mosquitoes found me. Also, the jasmine hadn’t gone to bed yet and smelled heavenly.
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