The level of noise in the world is significant compared with my own childhood. Even living away from the city, I hear more vehicle noises than nature sounds at times. My experiences with apartment living proved that walls are too thin between neighboring bedrooms to sleep through arguments or parties. My only downtown rentals assured …
What Dominates Your Thoughts?
So much rain! The ground is saturated and oozes with every step. I remember my own hesitation to take my kids outside to play when they were small. Mud doesn’t bother children, just the adults who have to clean their clothes. Whether or not I took them outside depended a lot on the previous day …
Pilot Light
I have a very lovely stone fireplace in my home that I never use. It’s not broken. It’s not complicated to use either. There’s a convenient little switch on the wall next to the stonework and if you walk over close enough to peek behind the first log, you’ll see the pilot light flickering day …
It’s For You
I remember buying our first cordless phone set with one extension for the master bedroom upstairs. Before that, our telephone was attached to the wall in the kitchen and the receiver was attached to that by a longish curly cord, which was great for fiddling with while you chatted, but annoying when you needed to …
Where Are You Tonight?
The shepherds were watching their flocks the night that Christ was born. The wise men were far to the east when the Christ star appeared, doing whatever wise men do. Joseph and Mary were crowded into a stable in Bethlehem for a census decreed by an emperor who was merely concerned about his tax base, …
Keeping The Glass Full
My husband pushed his empty iced tea glass closer and closer to the edge of the table, frustrated with the lack of service during dinner. He’s always been a good tipper, having worked in just about every position in an independent grocery from the time he was old enough to work and on through college. …
We Can’t Get Around It- We Need Each Other
“We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day! We’re not scared. Oh-oh! A snowstorm! We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh, no! We’ve got to go through it!” -Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury Thomas loves a bear hunt. It doesn’t matter if …
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What’s For Dinner?
My husband hit a home run with dinner plans when he asked if he could pick up a specific meal from a specific restaurant for us one evening. In our thirty-one years of marriage, we’ve had plenty of exchanges involving what we’d have for dinner that sound like echoes. What do you want? I don’t …
Living Under A Shadow
Thomas is one and a fledgling walker. His mom insists that he hold her hand for safety in parking lots and on sidewalks, but he is free to roam inside his playroom or fenced yard. Sometimes he still chooses to hold her hand if the ground is particularly uneven or he’s in unfamiliar territory. I …
Focus Forward
As I drove home from visiting my daughter in the mountains earlier this evening, I watched the sun setting. My southeastern route meandered through the foothills and the pinks and oranges of dusk stayed to my right until one winding section placed the western sky right in front of me. This is the view I …
A Fitting Reply 