“So,” she asked, “are you beginning to feel settled yet?” How do I answer that, I wonder? Should I mention we haven’t even carried our furniture up from the basement because first we have to paint the walls and redo the flooring? Or should I begin with the re-wiring saga, or drywalling? Maybe I could […]
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“Pick me up,” my grandson says. He reaches little arms high, and his mommy leans down, puts her hands against his solid tiny body. Her brown hair swings forward and covers the smile I know is there. With a heave, she swings him into her arms. He not much more than a baby, but he […]
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“Can’t we all just get along?” she asked. Watery pools gathered at the bottom of her eyes ready to splash over, waterfalls of reflected blue. Life as a thirteen-year-old had become invaded with tween girl spite and division. I hate confrontation. I despise division. It gives me a pit in my stomach. That’s not to […]
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A round robin family letter, the kind meant to keep families connected in normal times when coronavirus has nothing to do with being apart pops up in our inbox several times a year. Cousins with blood thick enough to span miles and embrace in-laws, convene together in one compiled letter. Pages long, it’s like the […]
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Before farms had fashionable “mud rooms,” they existed. “Don’t you come in the front porch,” my mom insisted to my black-dirt-clothed brothers before supper. Because of course on the farm we had suppers not dinners, and dinners instead of lunches. My three brothers heavy with the weight of a mixture of wheat dust, sweat and […]
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My parents weren’t really the “let the consequences teach her” kind of people. They were more the “let’s give her some consequences” types. But since I could always count on what my actions would get me, I had the ability to weigh whether or not what I had in mind was worth the pain. Those […]
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“No rest for the weary,” mom sighed. She bent down to pick up muddy boots and move them off the kitchen floor where they lay on their rubber sides, shells without spirits. She carried them out the back door and set them outside on cement steps marked by clumps of wet dirt. We cook, clean, […]
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New makes me skittish. While everyone else revels in the thought of a blank-slate New Year ahead, I’ve always anticipated a new beginning with a bit of fear and dread. When others see possibilities, I’m wondering what will go wrong? I know something is a little wonky in my thinking. This morning I read Paul’s […]
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She sat in front of me a crumpled mess. Not a particularly deep conversation quickly turned into infinity pools of tears. Words halted and poured like the start and go of a sputtering fountain. Lines across her face I’d never noticed before drew the portrait of a weary soul. My heart twisted with her paradox […]
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What if Tarzan hadn’t married Jane, the tree swinger? What if Tarzan married Penelope who didn’t share the same desire to swing from a tree? What if she had no idea that people killed spiders with their bare hands and then thought it romantic to hold hands. Perhaps she couldn’t fathom killing a creepy-crawly without […]
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