I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that workrooms must be messy, hamsters have to escape from cages, and household pipes and wires simply can’t work in harmony for any great stretch of time. Springtime means a general house cleaning. It also means the garden gets planted, chicks get hatched, and […]
Perspective
There is a vulture circling overhead, I wonder—why can’t it be a sparrow instead? The drier signals come-get-me-now with demanding beeps, I tell the dog, “Go get the clothes.” She blissfully sleeps. Sink clogged; floor sogged, Land bogged; mind grogged. Willow-whisps of complaint flitter through my head, Think of kindness, […]
Where Life United
Your eyes record a different world than mine, Without my music, books, or time. Declining years loom ahead, Your face lights with futuristic hope instead. Joking, you say, go back to days long past, But no return would I gladly clasp. Childhood bittersweet, Adolescence confusion reaped. Love and marriage replaced […]
Mercy’s Sake
Deception makes fools of us all. Yet sometimes the truth hurts so much that we hold back for mercy’s sake. Our human journey can be a treacherous one to be sure. It’s snowing now, very cold, and more snow and lower temperatures are on the way. Our woodstove pipe slipped a […]
Between Worlds
A short story— Shailyn jerked upright in bed, jolted from the other world back into her own. The usual, odd discomfort dogged her as she peeled back the heavy bed covers, then trod to the bathroom for her daily ablutions. I belong there haunted her thoughts as she tugged on her […]
I Lift My Gaze
“That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.” ~Walt Disney When I heard Walt Disney’s quote in the movie Saving Mr. Banks a few weeks ago, I knew that he had hit upon a powerful truth. Little did I realize at the time […]
Love’s Fire
Last evening, my kids gathered on a far section of our land. We traipsed across a rickety bridge over our ever-widening creek to reach it. Sheltered by old-growth maples, full of tall grass, vines, and brambles, it’s a wild bit of land. The kids worked hard to clear a space […]
For Me?
God’s birth comes in many forms… An old woman and her sandwich saved my life. Not that I was starving. I wasn’t. In fact, I hadn’t had an appetite in three days. Moreover, I had no wish to live. She didn’t know that. But, still, she wouldn’t let me die. […]
Come Out of the Cold
Stupid mistakes left Trix cold. Her own especially. Who on planet Earth was responsible for spelling? And could she find a legal precedent for killing the nameless perpetrators outright or would it have to be a clandestine affair? Though surely, she’d had a good portion of the world’s fifth-graders in […]
Head for Shore
The lake before me runs at an even pace with ripples breaking against the rocky, wooded shoreline. November trees adorned with crumpled, brown leaves shiver in a cold breeze. Evergreens standout, their pine branches waving as if to salute distant friends who never get any closer. This should be a […]