Category Archives: Grief

Search for Common Ground

911 Sixty Minutes’ story about 911 took me back to that tragic day. Sixty Minutes reported that remains are still being identified in 2025. With new technology, more remains will continue to be identified. Once DNA is confirmed, family members are being notified.  Unfortunately, many people’s remains are still unidentified. I was director of aContinue reading “Search for Common Ground”

The Thin Line

There is a thin line between excitement and anxiety. Excitement is a many-splendored peacock fluttering in one’s heart. This gorgeous bird is lime, gold and mauve with a deep blue elegant head set on a slender neck. He fans his long, turquoise-studded tail feathers and chirps happily about the adventure ahead. The Without warning, theContinue reading “The Thin Line”

War Veteran

This family story is a tale I heard in bits and pieces when I was growing up. Only the people themselves know the truth of any of it. They have all passed on. In this version of the story my father John, not his real name, was born in 1917 and grew up on aContinue reading “War Veteran”

Bonding

Connecting “I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there’s a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us.”          Alice Hoffman I have a strong bond to the ruralContinue reading “Bonding”

Finding Motivation

“We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.” Patti Smith Why write at all: Motivation during Covid In the past I’ve looked to nature and animals for writing motivation. Spring flowers and emerging life are Mother Nature’s invitation to go outside, hear the birds sing, smell fresh air, dip fingers in warmingContinue reading “Finding Motivation”

A Farmer’s Daughter’s look at Ag

I grew up on a family farm. There were always chores to do. I was more interested in reading than farming. I devoured every book and magazine I could find. We didn’t have books at home or at the little country school. I borrowed books from anyone willing to loan them. My rural schoolteacher borrowedContinue reading “A Farmer’s Daughter’s look at Ag”

WIND: A Personal Perspective

I’ve been thinking about wind lately. I grew up on a farm near a village of four-hundred people. My parents lived north of this village until I was ten. Their next rented farm was south of that same berg. These places were the kind of farms that don’t exist anymore. My folks rented their smallContinue reading “WIND: A Personal Perspective”

HOLY WEEK AND SOCIAL DISTANCING

Dear Reader, this blog is a tongue-in-cheek look at Holy Week. PALM SUNDAY Jesus won’t be riding into Jerusalem on a donkey this year, triumphantly or otherwise. Palms will still have their leaves as trees won’t be chopped apart for his fans to lay branches across his path. We might see palm trees as farContinue reading “HOLY WEEK AND SOCIAL DISTANCING”