Do you have a nickname? Some nicknames follow given names, like Suzy from Suzanne, but I’m talking about pet names given by people who love us. My mother bestowed two…
You’ll never believe what lay on my doorstep this morning. I might have stepped on her if not for the contrasting yellows and greens that she wore. It was Tina…
Trees, barren of leaves and color, appear dead in winter. Winter that period of waiting, waiting, waiting, with our feet on the edge of despair, willing for life to return…
“It was great running into you. Let’s do lunch.” “I’d love to—stay in touch.” Friends hug and wave goodbye as they step in different directions with their minds already on…
Dad picked up the salt shaker and tipped it over his tea. “Uh Dad, that’s not your steak. That’s your tea.” He continued with the salt, and few crystals began…
A disturbing question confronted me two weeks ago, like an Intervention. It bubbled under the surface in March and April when the Master Naturalist classes were meeting, but I ignored…
Cardinalis cardinalis. Like an enlightened Hellen Keller, I gorge on names in a Master Naturalist class, running from tree to tree. What’s the name of this tree, that bloom?…
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow A baseball cap wedged between the bed and wall, the piano bench pulled out, an empty refrigerator, and piles of sheets and towels, that’s what’s…
My ears blared sirens in my head, not of sound but of hot-pokered pain. I sat on the crinkly paper in an exam room. “Your ears are fine.” “What? Then…
This past fall we drove fifteen minutes to the beach for our son to soak in salt water before he had to return to landlocked Tennessee later that evening. The…
We’re still in January, and we have the whole year ahead of us. Most of us, though, stumble down the trail, because we have rocks in our shoes. Reoccurring worry…
A group of people from different races, religious denominations, ages and backgrounds meets at our house every Tuesday night. After we overeat a potluck dinner, we begin our meeting with…