In a world where shootings are random and far too common place, one cannot help wondering if there is any hope for human kind to change and better the world we share. After reading about the Batman massacre and feeling a sense of deja vous in the details of this story, I am feeling a …
We walk, hand-in-hand, along hard, sandy shoreline. I am the bare feet with sand in between toes and he is the one in sandals. Shells crunch underfoot, but I am being careful where I step. I still have the scar from last summer on my left foot, the memory- a jagged line from another shell …
How Not to Have the Vacay of your Dreams… I have had this recurring dreaming for the past couple of weeks . The dream goes mostly like this: I am finished work and school is out for the summer. In the shade a brightly colored beach umbrella, I am relaxing poolside with my favorite book …
I am in my closet, hiding from the child crying on the other side of the bedroom door. Instead of telling her to go away and allow me a moment’s peace whilst I stand here in my birthday suit, I ask her what (in the name of tarnation) is wrong. She informs me that her …
Another day, another inner struggle to find joy amidst the rubble of the stuff from which we build our stories . Stories that tell of who we are. What we are. What we want to become. My story: I want to find joy, and oft I have tried to claim it. I have even chosen …
I wake up before 6:00 a.m. to a child stealing my pillow and a husband snoring. Happy Mother’s Day, 2012. I crawl out of bed to ready for the day of festivities…birthday present openings and birthday breakfast for the ten-year old, phone calls, church, dinner out, visits with family, church again, lesson planning for tomorrow, …
Not long ago, a friend mailed me a letter that contained two sheets of paper. On one sheet, was an article titled The Meanest Mother in the World, and on the other was the letter writer’s note to me which can be summarized with this one sentence: “Nice to know that being ‘mean’ is not …
I was cleaning up after supper, when he suggested that we sit out on the veranda for coffee. I turned around and saw the box of chocolate truffles waiting as an invitation for something more, a date with my husband on the porch swing. I could feel the excuses surfacing…remnants from supper lay hardening on …
She is finally asleep, that little ball of energy, my spitfire. A half-dozen times, I have lost count now, my baby girl calls for me to do one thing or the other, always stalling for time. It is a battle, sleep does not come easy for her. I hear nothing for a glorious stretch of …
It is a wet, cold rainy evening. April showers to bring May flowers, if we are so blessed. My husband sits in the entry way to our house with a wet dog at his feet that keeps passing gas and trying to escape the confines of her clearly defined boundaries. I come downstairs after stories …
I have been thinking about things today. Deep things. I feel a little blue, so forgive me for the shadow this might cast on this essay. But permit me to say that I sometimes feel caught up in extenuating circumstances, over which I have no control, and these self-same circumstances can sometimes be enough to …
I have a day out of the classroom today (assessment meetings-JOY!), courtesy of the Western School Board for which I am employed. I feel almost giddy as I leisurely get myself ready and line my ducks up in a row for the day. Everything is taking longer this morning, and I feel so GENEROUS with …