If you have been with me for a while, you know I am a lover of words and stories. I read them. I write them. I love them. When I taught middle school (that delightfully awkward age around 13), my daily challenge focused on convincing a bored and [...]
Today I will take you down memory lane. Specifically, a meeting with the superintendent and an assignment I have never forgotten. The superintendent didn’t have any details or parameters for this project, only a simple directive: “We need an ethics course.” I returned to my desk and took the [...]
Music embraces. Music consumes me, always has. I remember the small record player and a stack of plastic children’s records that I played over and over for hours. Around the age of five, I wanted a piano, a real piano, not the small toy version with only ten [...]
The first day of fall arrived in Southeast Texas this week, bringing mid-to-high ninety temperatures. I won’t be pulling out my sweaters anytime soon. What was I expecting? By now I should know that fall creeps past this part of the world, lingering into winter. The trees hold [...]
Three generations of women traveled across the Atlantic to fulfill a dream and a promise. A promise made to a nine-year-old when she wanted to be a part of the “girl talk.” That promise became a dream to travel together and experience the wonder and magic of Paris. [...]
You borrow some. I collect words and ideas. Whenever I find a phrase, a sentence, or an entire paragraph that speaks to me, I write it down These snippets find their way on sticky notes, in my journal, Apple Notes, or an Excel file with over 1,200 entries. [...]
First, a few poetic thoughts . . . “…whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” — Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese” in [...]
Hint: You can’t stop it. We don’t enter the world with a sense of time, how it passes or what it even means. Babies wake up, get hungry, and want to be fed and changed. Comfort is important. Young children don’t comprehend the concept of an hour. Ask any [...]
My mundane nine-hour drive came alive when I noticed the colors, especially the green. The trees, bushes, and vines spoke in thousands of shades of one color: green. Emerald, lime, chartreuse, mint, and seafoam splashed across the landscape, and no two trees sported the same shade or hue [...]
Well, am I, really? Welcome to the dog days of summer . . . I often heard this as a child, but what does it mean? Our canine friends might consider it a compliment, an insult, or something more devious. What else could I do but go on [...]
