writing when inspired about the often overlooked
Starting in their teenage years, my husband began taking our three sons on annual getaway father/son weekends. We have since grown to a family of eighteen with the addition of three much-loved daughter-in-law and ten grandchildren. As the family grew, so did the size (and participants) of the getaways. Our first all-inclusive getaway, 20 years…
There I was – a blond-haired four year old living in the deep south community of Dixie, Alabama in the early 1950’s. My family, consisting of me and my parents, had just moved from a modern upstairs apartment in south central Pennsylvania with running water and a bathroom, to our “new” southern house, without running…
He loves his blankets. all five of them. Waking up, he points to a blanket saying “it,” over and over until his Grandma gathers all of them Then, and only then, does he melt into her lap, uncharacteristically quiet while he wakes up slowly to his world. Grandma loves these rare, quiet times all of…
Up to her usual shenanigans, April plays with us once again. She dusts our neighborhoods with snow while we sleep, chuckling at our dismay as we peer out the window in the morning. It doesn’t seem to matter to her we have the hammock and the swing in the yard. She tells us its sweater-time…
My phone rang late one evening. Seeing it was my young friend, I answered with a smile in my voice “Good evening, Bridgett.” (not her real name.) A small voice, said “Do you have time to talk? Hearing “Of course,” the small voice became even smaller as the “little girl” inside my very grown up…
rounding a curve on Rt. 205 the air traffic control tower looms above the horizon on the way to Portland International Airport (PDX), home of the iconic teal blue carpet (or is it teal green) where we take pictures of our feet the carpet that says “we’re home” or “we’re leaving. today we are leaving….
I entered the second half of life with a sturdy bucket load of dreams, brimming with possibilities. In addition, that bucket held the resources I’d need in order to make them happen“things I thought I would do, who I thought I would become, places to which I would travel. Besides the writing classes and conferences…
If you have been reading for awhile here, you know I occasionally reference things my grandchildren have taught me. I find they are in the background of my mind most of my days. It’s no surprise when I sit down to be quiet, what is in the background comes to the fore. Today when I…
I dabbled at writing a diary in high school, but that diary disappeared along with the one I started my first year in college – the one where I carefully noted every interaction with any boy down to the detail of what was said and done so that someday I could return to said…
Oh, Hello Grief. Here you are, a little early. Tomorrow would have been my brother’s 56th birthday“ another bittersweet day to celebrate without him. This will be the seventh time since he lost his way in his beloved Montana Mountains and died of hypothermia. I was hoping you wouldn’t show up this year. That’s the…