Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

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Dream Poem #3: Laura and I and a Ferris Wheel

July 13, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

  Laura and I and a Ferris Wheel Laura had an emergency at work that morning, but first we–she and her husband and I– took a spin on a giant Ferris wheel, once known as a “pleasure wheel,” but today a playdate wheel. We went up, up, up… but at the top, just before the descent, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Dream Poems, poetry

Dream Poem#1: Hog Stew, Krispy Kremes, and Ann Voskamp

June 18, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

  Hog Stew, Krispy Kremes, and Ann Voskamp The quicksand tried to swallow me. Then the train came and an elephant held out his trunk. When I grasped it, it wiggled into a rainbow’d snake that flung me into the red Corvette convertible in Canadian National auto carrier #1000 graffiti’d with gifts. We snaked our […]

Filed Under: Blog, Dream Poems, poetry

I Didn’t Expect

June 8, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

  I never expected to have children. I never dreamed of a family. I didn’t play love and marriage or stuff my shirt with pillows. I did dream of caring for others. Maybe in far countries. I even used to hope I’d find an injured animal so I could take care of it. But I […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

How to Spoon Hope

January 12, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

  She greets us at the door with shy hugs. The kids leave and return with plastic lawn chairs to supplement the tattered gold sofa. She wants us to sit. There are no windows, so we strain to see, strain to hear her heart through the rhythm of the rain as it pulses on the corrugated tin roof, crescendos and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Compassion International, Dominican Republic

Damaged Dreams and Broken Expectations

October 3, 2014 By Sandra Heska King

    I’ve been sitting in a new pew the past few weeks. Not that there was anything wrong with the old one, the one where my husband had grown up and where we expected we might end up. Literally. But I’d started to feel restless and a little cramped. I wasn’t connecting relationally with […]

Filed Under: Blog, stories

i just want summer to last

August 23, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

summer

I’m sitting in a black wrought iron chair on the patio, munching a cream-cheesed cinnamon-raisin bagel. I hadn’t meant to eat a bagel. I’d meant to opt for something more healthy–like scrambled egg whites tossed with spinach and tomatoes and onions. But I’m housebreaking a new puppy, and it’s a grab-and-go day.  (We swore there’d […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

still saturday: solitude

March 8, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

“But the inability to understand what creativeness there is in solitude, that it is somehow linked to the ‘madness of silence,’ is to deny the human spirit its vital recharge for facing the rigors of everyday life. “Solitude is choosing to be alone . . . “Solitude is to let the mind and emotions drain […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

when you’re crushed and broken

March 7, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

broken

It’s just the two of us for dinner. I scrounge up some chicken, left over from the chicken-with-cherry-sauce recipe from A Taste of Laity Lodge. Only for her, I serve it plain with bottled Hawaiian sauce and no cherries and a broken breadstick with pizza sauce. She skips the asparagus. Then she trades the chicken […]

Filed Under: Blog, stories

still saturday: a wordcandy poem

March 1, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

A WordCandy Poem   Give me silence, water hope. It is time to ravel rays from ravished dreams. Steady yourself and see the length of life is decreed by nature, its depth by grace. To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle softening into butter. A thing like that can make […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Scripture Sunday: In Your Wildest Dreams

September 22, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

God can do anything, you know— far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:20 (MSG)

Filed Under: 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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“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final t “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” ~ Philippians 4:8 

#fall #southflorida #hope #thoughts #philippians4 #dayafterelection
“My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in th “My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.” ~ William Wordsworth in “My Heart Leaps Up”

🌈🌈🌈

From my back door and then from the patio. A phone can never capture the true glory of a rainbow. I hope my heart never fails to leap at the wonder of one.
We were monarch parents a couple years back, but o We were monarch parents a couple years back, but our food was not enough to support all our “children.”
🌱
But some were better parents. And next month @tspoetry is celebrating with a garden party. And you are invited. 
🌱

✨ An evening poetry celebration with Dheepa Maturi, Laura Boggess, Jules Jacob, and Sonja Johanson
✨ sign up today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/year-of-the-monarch-garden-party-tickets-1005650847757
✨
This is called a sweetheart plant. I bought it at This is called a sweetheart plant. I bought it at a farmers market in Ponte Vedra in Feb 2023. And it hasn’t done a thing except not die. I did repot it a few months back just cuz I thought it might need it. A few days ago I noticed it was sprouting a sprout. And today—10 days after having my aortic valve replaced and the day after having a loop recorder inserted—it has UNFURLED!!! A new heart. 🩷
Looking west this morning. “Sometime, enough o Looking west this morning. 

“Sometime, enough of us should plan
to gather and form our own
luminous cloud.” ~ Luci Shaw in “The Weight of Air” (from The Generosity)
Security is on the job. Security is on the job.
So after 13 years of checkups and annual echos, it So after 13 years of checkups and annual echos, it's finally come to this. One week from today I will have my aortic valve replaced. Eeeek! I know it's done all the time--piece of cake. But that's to other people. 😂 Speaking of cake, I've always hoped to blow out 100 candles (at least), and I keep singing this line in my head...

"And my heart will go on and on." Thanks to @celinedion. 💕
Hi! Long time, no post. So… I grew this from a Hi! Long time, no post. So…

I grew this from a pineapple top. We repotted it again over the weekend. Still no fruit, though. Our neighbor has a baby growing on a small plant, though. What’s up with that?

(Also, I do not have a green thumb. Currently the only things still living are this, an avocado, and a little Boston fern.)
We got out here early today, but it was already so We got out here early today, but it was already soooooo hot (later on the"feels like" was 110), and I was just plodding one foot in front of the other wishing I was still in bed. There was not much to see--except the crane family, some blackbirds, a dove. And it was buggy. And a deer fly bit me on the forearm, and it swelled up, and I still have a 1- x 3-inch reddened area. But then... a pink parade.
Just snapped a couple photos of a normal looking s Just snapped a couple photos of a normal looking sky from my back patio with my iPhone! I grew up in Michigan and never saw them before! #northernlights #westboca #southflorida
“So they took branches of palm trees and went ou “So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” ~ John 12:13
🌴
🌴
PALMS

He had a date with them. ~SHK
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🌴
~ Six words I wrote on my blog in 2015 as part of a daily “One Word Less for Lent” series.
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Photo taken in Israel, 2022.
Dressed for success... Dressed for success...
“Sing, hope, to me” ~favorite line from “The “Sing, hope, to me” ~favorite line from “The First Spring Day” by Christina Rossetti via Every Day Poems and @tspoetry in my email this morning. 
❣️
Whole poem (with lots of favorite lines) here:
❣️
https://open.substack.com/pub/everydaypoems/p/the-first-spring-day?r=3acod&utm_medium=ios
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Wild red poppy anemones from our spring trip to Israel in 2022. And, of course, red is the color of hope. 
❣️
#dipintopoetry #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #tweetspeakpoetry #everydaypoems
Sweet baby colts. Just one parent. Apparently the Sweet baby colts. Just one parent. Apparently the other was hit by a car. 😭💔
Bufo serenade AKA the Ballad of the Bufo Bufo serenade AKA the Ballad of the Bufo
South Florida is confused. South Florida is confused.
“Somehow she learns to breathe.” ~ @gyoung9751 “Somehow she learns to breathe.” ~ @gyoung9751 in “The mermaid breathes,” a woven poem from tweets. In my email today from Every Day Poems via @tspoetry.
🌱 
#dipintopoetry #everydaypoems #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetsofig #tweetspeakpoetry
"You have what you need / is what the birds sing a "You have what you need / is what the birds sing all morning" ~ Annie Lighthart in "Conditions of Happiness."
🌱
In my email this morning from 
Every Day Poems via @tspoetry.
🌱
#dipintopoetry #poetry #poetrycommunity #everydaypoems #poem #poetsofinstagram #tweetspeakpoetry
If you’ve made it this far, the rest of the week If you’ve made it this far, the rest of the week should be a snap. #wednesday
Stay behind me. I’ll protect you. No worries. So Stay behind me. I’ll protect you. No worries. So will all those shots. Mostly.
🦝
D still has PTSD from the Great Possibly Rabid Raccoon Brouhaha of 2021.
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