After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we […]
31 Days of Coming to Grips with My Age – Day 24: Counting
A new day stretches, and the sky wraps me soft like a baby blanket. The air breathes damp and gentle against my face, sighs into my hair. The cracked concrete of the driveway apron is still wet from the rain, and my children’s small handprints are barely visible in the eroding. Yet Lake Abby spreads dry […]
Of Blooms and Bunnies
How many seeds are in the sacrifice? How many births from a single head? Life comes through death, and there is beauty in the dying. While one life fades, another blooms in a never-ending cycle. And we welcome a new member of the family–White Rose the lionhead. Rosie for short.
Going Home
We should be eating free pancakes (pfannekuchen) under the pavilion. That was the plan. That’s Friday morning Alpenfest tradition. But Sissy and I instead pack hospital bags–contact lens solutions, glasses, toothbrush, deodorant, a change of clothes. We slip computers into cases and cell phone charges into purses. We don’t know what the next few days hold. […]
Roots, Relationships, and a Seagull
The parsley and the basil roots pant for water as they bake in their biodegradable pots. I meant to sink them deep long before this. And the geranium 6-pack baskets, bought over a month ago when spring exploded early? Once luscious red, now with browned heads. I need perennials. Plants that thrive and spread […]
When a Plan Comes Together
Yesterday’s gray skies give way to a sea of fluffy cotton balls. Soybeans toss and churn. Cattails surrounding “Lake Abby” sway in the breeze. Hummingbirds continue to feed and fight outside the window, and I watch tiny green feathers ruffle. A Monarch flutters high while red and yellow leaves fall low, and a chickadee digs for […]
Walking Wooden
They’re at it again, these two. Claire and L.L. Asking us to stretch our “creative fibers.” To share our history symbolically. In photographic images. And poetry–a sonnet. Claire challenges us to find five photos that answer five specific questions. I didn’t realize how much my life has been shaped by wood. 1. Who Made Up Your […]
The Road of Life (repost)
The Road of Life At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there sort of like a president; I recognized His picture when I saw it, but […]
When the Way Gets Rough
We make a last-minute decision to check out our son’s wedding venue in Ludington, Michigan and make plans for the rehearsal meal. It’s a working weekend, but we take the bikes along, too. And the grandgirl. Because it’s also bachelorette party weekend, and her mom is in the wedding. Ludington sits right on Lake Michigan […]
Mindless Drifting
It’s dark when I head to the porch this morning. Dark and chilly and windy. I wrap the Dora blanket around my legs and rock while the trees sprinkle my face. I note a light on at Abby’s, and I wonder if everything is okay and think about texting, but I don’t. I hear semi […]
