I’ve taken to the porch this morning with a cup of coffee and my camera. It’s supposed to be over 100 today, and I can feel the humidity rising. But there’s a breeze, and it’s comfortable. I love this porch. I don’t think I could ever live anywhere again without one. We added this […]
Dancing With Julia–Or Not
We went to the symphony on our first date and then somewhere for a bite to eat. I ordered a shrimp salad. A bit extravagant, probably, but I thought he was rich. His parents drove a Mercedes, after all, even though they were farm folk. I remember how he encircled my right hand with his […]
Five Minute Friday: I Didn’t Expect
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 never […]
Five Minute Friday: Give Me Eyes to See
God, give me eyes to see to dive deep, deep into your world to find golden nuggets of glory, mustard-seed miracles, the sacred sprinkled, with grace. To see beauty in a building broken, in a body sinking, eternity in the moment, to sense the take-your-shoes-off holy. Adjust my lenses and my focus, make the invisible […]
Five Minute Friday: Sacred Sod
“I need to go plant flowers at the cemetery this weekend,” I said. “When you and Dad are gone, will I have to do that?” My daughter brushes a blond strand off her forehead. “You don’t have to,” I smile. “I mean, is it my job, my responsibility?” I shrug. “I like to do it. […]
Five Minute Friday: The Lace of Life
My baby dress–crocheted by my Aunt Esther in 1949. “Grandma! Grandma! A worm. A worm in my room!” She sounds hysterical. I leap out of bed. “I’m coming! I’m coming!” She’s reacting to a new medicine. Not so well. “Don’t open the door! It’ll fall on your head! It’s moving!” She’s sobbing. I run to […]
In Every Muddy Moment
I aimed and fired. “I don’t NEED you!” All over a pair of muddy boots. The ones I wore to chase wonders down by Lake Abby a few weeks back. The ones that are always in the back kitchen. I’d asked him to wash them off for me. He said he would. Now I […]
Five Minute Friday: In Which She is Afraid to Say Hello
We’re on the way to school, and I tell Grace how Great-Grandpa is home and can’t drive and is lonesome since Great-Grandma died. I tell her how he likes us to call, to hear our voices. “I don’t know if he’ll be up yet,” I say, “but let’s try.” He answers on the second […]
In Which I Pin a Bat With a Ragu Jar
(Photo has absolutely nothing to do with this story because… leaking bat) It is loud here. Very. Loud. It all starts when oldest grand girl comes out of her bedroom and begins to scream about the bat swooping over my head and around the living room and into the kitchen and back into the living […]
Spilling the Filling
Snow dusts the field, the driveway, the roof. A robin shivers in the pregnant branches. Feathers ruffle in the bitter wind. The feeders are empty, so I don my jacket and boots, scoop black oil to refill. I purposely spill some for the ground-feeders and for the love of sunflowers. I come in and […]
