Those of us in the northern climes understand snow. We understand how to drive in it (rock and roll, turn the steering wheel, etc.), how to walk in it (trudging through or like a penguin when it’s slippery), we understand that it is coming whether we want it or not, and we appreciate the beauty of it when it forces us indoors. The soft, white blankets covering everything, formed layers on windows, magical artwork of drifts, and the intricate detailing of each individual, uniq

Some of us prefer, or get, a simple life fraught with no more danger than relatively minor or unlikely fears – perhaps just missing being in a car accident or having “difficult” family members. Forget about real fear. The kind where you push someone aside to save them and hope the car doesn’t hit you. Or you stand in line with protestors who are fighting for peace while there are guns pointed at you. Or being an African American child who walks through aggressive lines of hat

One day I happened to look across the room I was sitting in and saw a box that had been delivered a short while earlier. It was an Amazon box, which means the smiling arrow was on the end I could see. I am not sure if it is meant to be a smile or just a “going out” logo, but I always see it as a smile – going out. Anyway, their orange tape happened to be strapped across the smile as if someone was trying to cover up or stop the smile. That made me think about how sometimes we

We lost a son/brother/-in-love/husband/father/grandfather late 2024. He not only had a big heart and a big voice, but he was hilarious. When the year 2000 rolled around (Y2K, do you remember it?), everyone was petrified that the computer systems were going to crash. Tons of extra computer programmers were hired to get the systems ready to flip to 2000 (instead of 1900’s). There was a great deal of commotion leading up to it. Some people bought or created survival kits. Others

What are your favorite memories of Christmas? Was it a special gift that you REALLY wanted? Was it the traditions that the family did – stringing popcorn, eating at grandparents’ houses, putting the tree up, or was it the giving or getting of gifts?   I remember my great aunt telling me that when she was a child, the present they got from their grandparents was a cookie that grandma made with an iron shaped tool that was dipped in batter and deep fried. Grandma would hang the

Since it’s almost Christmas, I thought I would think about angels. Angels We Have Heard on High…and all that. Who heard them? I googled it. Google didn’t have an answer. It just brought up Revelation 5:11 from the Bible, “Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders.”  (New Living Translation) Of course we know the shepherds heard the angels announcing the birth of Jesus and that’s wh

I have a friend who I seldom see anymore, but we hung out a fair amount when we were raising our children. This is sad because she is one of the funnest people I know. When we get together, we laugh. A lot. We will call her Mable.­ One of our episodes revolved around hanging a wallpaper border in her dining room.­ You probably had to be there to appreciate it properly, but it was pretty comical – especially when you get two laughers together. It began at the beginning of the

I was listening to a post of the Beatles singing "Hey Jude" and thinking music is our universal language. But then I saw that laughter and tears must be. Unless we have a poker face, an expression on our face would definitely help communication – if we are noticing. Music feeds our souls and breaks barriers to connect us – to ourselves, to each other, to our surroundings, to God, but laughter and tears – they speak volumes. And our response to seeing someone either laughing o

Remember the first thanksgiving dinner? It was a three-day harvest celebration. In 1621, the Plymouth (Massachusetts) Colony Pilgrims who had survived the prior winter (half of them died; about fifty survived) and the Wampanoag tribe (Native Americans) numbering about ninety feasted together. In that first year the pilgrims were in North America, the Wampanoag tribe had helped them, including teaching them farming techniques. Do you remember Squanto from your history books wh

What is just around the corner, you ask? Maybe it’s a “boo!”? (It was just Halloween…) Or is it a surprise party…? Or a disaster…? Tons of stuff are just around the corner. But in this case, it was a restaurant.   One of my brothers lived in Chicago for a number of years and while he was there one of our daughters was looking into colleges in the Windy City. So we stayed with him for a few days, and he graciously helped us get around. After one of the college tours, it was so

Do you feel like you are in a low valley? Craggy mountains rise all around you, closing you in. Not a patch of green for hope or any way out? Have you been there for a while?   We all have these times. Sometimes, they are part of us: depression, loneliness, fear, anxiety... Other times, they are thrust on us – an unfaithful spouse, a sick child, bad health, the death of a loved one – things we cannot control. Things that slide us down to that pit that gets a hold of us, if we

Suppose the earth flipped upside down. Would we be upside down, too? Are the people on the bottom of the globe upside down? (How amazing is this earth and its gravity?!) Suppose…your pets could talk. Would you listen to them? If you have a number of them, it might be a challenge to keep up with them.   Suppose there were no starfish in the ocean – or dolphins, or whales or coral or…? Would the oceans be bland and boring? Would we “see” them differently? Suppose…an ice age cam

Haunted houses…scary costumes…horror films…jumping at the tiniest noise… Yes, Halloween has crept up on us. I like the kids’ aspects of it, the fun of it, but not so much the scary parts (lol, it’s all too real to me). Why is it that some people like to be “scared to death”? I had  to google it. The last one rather surprised me.   AI came up with five reasons from good sources. First, there can be an adrenaline rush, which can bring on feelings of excitement and pleasure. Sec

Lonely or alone? It can be a frame of mind. I have been in both mental places at different points in my life and I definitely prefer alone. “Alone” gives us freedom; it let’s us decide what we want to do and who we want to be. It builds our character, heals our hearts. “Lonely” can bind us, cripple us, dig a pit below and around us and fill it with pain. It says we NEED someone else to be happy, to live the best life, the best us. Do we need others to be happy? Not really (or

A friend of mine has a friend (we will call her Penny) who was hit by a falling tree. She ended up paralyzed from mid-chest down. She was 46 years old. Still fairly young and plenty of life left to live. Think about that. Put yourself in her shoes. A tree  fell on you, you are embolized, and you don’t know how it’s going to end. Will you survive it? Will you have lasting issues? Can you feel your legs? How would you react?   A few days after the accident, my friend went to vi

A picture tells a thousand words… But we need the words to explain what we are feeling. The reason I do a blog poem occasionally is...

Imagine being on a European tour. Then imagine stopping off in Italy and walking through Leonardo Da Vince’s house, all while considering...

How do I move      When moving hurts?   How do I feel      When pain dominates?   Is there another side      Where I can linger – in...

We have some fabulous singers with angelic voices in our family, but do we know WHO ELSE in the family can sing? Some people don’t care...

Do you love sparkles on lakes, rainbows on bubbles, the rustle of leaves on a tree… Did you know the absence of all color is white and...