The trees at our new house were planted just days before we moved in, late last July, in the middle of a heat wave. We watered the sod and landscaping three times a day for several weeks, but nevertheless, it appeared that three of our four trees did not survive. […]
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My Strength is “Input,” But Enough Already
Many years ago, my work group and I took the Gallup StrengthFinders survey. The theory behind this survey was that employees who get to do what they do best at work every day are more engaged and more productive in their jobs. The survey’s purpose was to identify what people […]
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Pandemic Reflection: It’s the Little Things That Bring Comfort
One blessing from the current coronavirus stay-at-home order is that I have realized how little I need. My purchases plummeted once I was confined to my house. No spur-of-the-moment stops at a coffee shop for chai. No shopping sprees for a new spring wardrobe. Not even a trip to the […]
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You Know Your Kids Are Grown, Part VII (Pandemic Edition)
It’s been over a year since I posted on this topic. In this time of the pandemic, I can’t visit my two adult children who live on opposite coasts, nor can they come visit me. In fact, they canceled a trip they had scheduled to Kansas City when the stay […]
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A Random List of Things That Are Going Well
The world is a crazy place in this era of the pandemic. “Social distancing” remains the phrase of the day, in many places accompanied by “shelter in place” or a variation thereof. Since Saturday, March 14, I have taken a few walks in our neighborhood, but otherwise I have barely […]
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COVID-19: What A Difference A Week Makes
Today is Wednesday, March 18. As of last Wednesday, March 11, my children and their cousins were all scheduled to fly to Kansas City this week for a meeting this coming weekend about family farmland. As of Thursday, March 12, we cancelled their trip. Why the change in plans? Coronavirus. […]
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Why I Became an Economics Major in College
I went to Middlebury College expecting to become a Political Science major. I had law school as a possibility in my mind even as I started college. Or maybe I would be a French major and teach French—I had already concluded already that I would never speak French well enough […]
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My Mother’s Hands
I wrote a poem several years back about my mother’s hands. Here it is: Heredity Stubby fingers, Split nails, Swollen knuckles, . . . And now age spots. My mother’s hands At the end of my wrists. How did this happen? At the time, my critique group didn’t get it. […]
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Bucket List: Making Music Again
I had my second first piano lesson last week. My first first piano lesson was more than fifty years ago, in September 1964, when I was in the fourth grade. I don’t remember that first lesson specifically, but I know I took piano lessons for six years from that point […]
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The Forest and the Trees and Writing Affirmations
I am in the thick of writing my current work-in-progress, approaching the halfway mark. I am in the trees, and I cannot see the forest. I write each scene and feel good about it, but I have no feel for the whole. Each conversation between my characters seems real, but […]
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