4:25 AM. Darkness surrounds me. Don’s sound asleep upstairs. I’m nestled in the living room window seat. A favorite place to perch for the ten years this house was ours in Ouray, Colorado. Now we rent this mountain home from its new owners. Outside my window stars spill across an indigo predawn sky. Bold outlines […]
We are grieving. Recently, we lost Don’s mother and father. They died sixty-five days apart and just missed celebrating their seventy-sixth-wedding anniversary. They had rich full lives. This was not a tragic loss. And yet their deaths have left holes in our hearts and lives. Grieving is an art. Like any art it’s a skill
I am a 72-year-old human doing. Most days find me doing a lot. Now I’m content to sit here in our family room, last night’s circle still present. Fragrances of sage, and sweet grass connect me to remarkable truths each women shared. As each lit her candle, she took a moment to silently offer a
A peach tree grows in my childhood. Her leaves, like a thousand green tongues, swallow me. Smooth silvery bark ripples like skin over her limbs. Her branches perfectly spaced so that my little girl legs step on one and then another. I settle into my spot. Thick strong arms reach around me. I am held.
Spring officially begins in twelve days, according to the sign my snow woman holds. Her countdown is one way I mark its arrival. Crocuses at the edge of my garden are another. Purple and yellow drops of color are refreshing in the midst of a black and white Midwestern winter. Dainty and determined these bright
To feel at ease in a hammock is simple. The lake is lapping against the shore. My Journal at hand. Birds are singing. A ropey cocoon enfolds me. Hammock retreats are few and far between for most of us. We are busy. We are always on our way to somewhere as pressing “to do” lists
Many of our Midwestern spring days were twenty degrees hotter than usual. Magnolias that held their buds through the cold winter, couldn’t resist bursting open like pink popcorn. The climbing Hydrangea was already thick and green on the garden fence when the other flowers began to blossom. Daffodils and tulips that waited for months in the frozen earth also appeared earlier than other years.
