I stand at the center of life. That happens to be my kitchen island as I type. This is where my two boys run in and out the back door, in plain view. Where sun bounces heat off a swath of white patio, refracting its bright light onto our living room walls. From the dining room window, a male Cardinal jumps near a female on the kids’ trampoline as she moves out of reach. Ducks waddle across the Bermuda. They are in search...
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I wish I could say Spring quietly slipped out like a visitor that’s too awkward for a goodbye. Instead it banged pots, tripped over furniture, and broke some china. I tried to enjoy every moment. Tried to savor the soggy ground that sagged under it’s own weight. Tried to appreciate my watered (drowning) Wave Petunia’s and Roma Tomato plants. Tried to not resent the overcast darkness of drizzle and...
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The sun is bright today. After days, weeks, and months of rain. I’m still reveling in the glory of sunshine. We live on a farm. And our neighbors live on farms. While the rain is a blessing, the saturated grounds negatively impacted work. However, it positively impacted hay production. But the grass is high. Very high. Cutting it now is a huge undertaking. Since most hay producers are already behind the power curve, this...
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There are times you live in the hidden nooks-n-crannies of your life, as if it were a shrinking back. But that’s not entirely true. It’s really a folding into your life. One that’s necessary and truer. It may feel you stepped off the stage, as if you were an actor in a familiar bar. Yet, nobody knows your name anymore. Life grew smaller. And how does smaller grow? Yet you know it does, in it’s own...
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I was the shiny new girl. The one who came most anytime of a school year when growing up. Middle, beginnings, or endings, did not matter really. Most every grade was in a different school. I loved it then. I could change. Be a chameleon. I graduated with strangers, or in the least, casual acquaintances. That was when I first, really ached for community, for a family of friends to celebrate memories I never shared. I...
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This is where it all began. This was the beginning of not letting fear rule me. From teenager to adulthood, I had hidden my work in secret places. Then one day, about 15 years ago, I burned it all. I destroyed every poem, short story, all my work, and I began fresh. I became a blank slate. With nothing. No promise to ever write one tittle of a word or anything, ever again. I started over. And I just lived. For a...
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