Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

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The Metz Fire of 1908–and Maybe a Connection

October 12, 2017 By Sandra Heska King

    My grandmother once rode a train through the middle of a forest fire. I heard the story second-hand from my dad. The family settled in Alpena, he told me, and never returned home to Tower, Michigan. Grandma was four years old. She was born in 1904. Tower is about 15 miles west of […]

Filed Under: Blog, stories

When You Need to Seam Home

June 22, 2016 By Sandra Heska King

  The men are laying new vinyl today. “Do you want the seam here… or there?” asks the one in charge. And I’m thinking, I don’t care. I won’t be living with it. This will no longer my home. I’m losing my sense of home. I’m already separating from it like a dying person begins to […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

When You Need to Disengage to Redirect

May 4, 2016 By Sandra Heska King

DISENGAGE

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” ~Anatole France Home. That’s the word I chose to guide my year in 2015. “It might mean fewer words see the light this […]

Filed Under: Blog, stories

scripture sunday: safe house

June 30, 2013 By Sandra Heska King

safe house

    God’s a safe-house for the battered, a sanctuary during bad times. The moment you arrive, you relax; you’re never sorry you knocked. ~Psalm 9:9-10 (MSG) Stilled and safe, Sandy With Deidra

Filed Under: stories and reflections

God Moments with G-Ma and Grace: Sugarloaf Mountain (repost)

June 4, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

We stay on the island as long as possible and then cross the Mighty Mac to the upper peninsula. Grace has waited for this all day. We travel west along Lake Superior and soak in the wonder of sky and water. Later He wraps us in pink and lavender and gold. The next day we decide […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections, writing

Textures of Text: Michigan Food and Trivia

December 27, 2011 By Sandra Heska King

I love my new cookbook, The Best of the Best from Michigan. I can’t wait to try the Country Tomato Pie or the So-Creamy Sweet Potato Soup or Bev’s Strawberry-Pecan Salad or the Bengal Lime Curry. But I also love all the Michigan trivia that it includes. Like the ones I’m sharing over at The […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Saturday Snaps: A Peek at a Piping Plover

August 27, 2011 By Sandra Heska King

  We’ve just come back from the Au Sable Light Station near Grand Marais, and the grandgirl and I are hiked out. She just wants to crash in the cabin with her Littlest Pet Shop critters and her case of plastic fish. I just want to make some coffee, put up my feet, and eye my slice […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

God Moments with G-Ma and Grace: The Soo Locks

August 22, 2011 By Sandra Heska King

It’s time to go home. But Grace saw a movie at school on the Soo Locks. She wants to see them up close and personal. And go through them. The scenery assaults me. We’ve come from peaceful and pristine to chaos and clutter. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan side. A place of barges and docks and […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Sunday Seasoned Sayings: Taquamenaw

August 21, 2011 By Sandra Heska King

(Photo of the upper Tahquamenon falls by Grace King)   Give me of your bark, O Birch-tree! Of your yellow bark, O Birch-tree! Growing by the rushing river, Tall and stately in the valley I a light canoe will build me, Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing, That shall float on the river, Like a […]

Filed Under: stories and reflections

God Moments with G-Ma and Grace: Tahquamenon Falls

August 18, 2011 By Sandra Heska King

Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. But still they ignore pleas and commands and warnings. Still they ignore fences, leave the path, and flirt with danger. We watch adults lead their children astray, encourage them to dance in slippery spots. And we talk about how we might not be able to steep ourselves […]

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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