Without knowing why, I started building paths in the yard. We've been on this property for six years, digging, clearing, planting. This spring, among the flowers, I saw path possibilities. Tiny ones. Path length doesn't matter. It's a way in and a way out, leading to a place ahead. And to a place inside yourself.…

Spring failed me for a long time this year. Snow fell far too long. Ground remained frozen. Cold killed a row of daffodils. Pounding weeks of rain delayed the landscaping project. My anticipation for spring's glorious colors, buried itself beneath the mulch. And it's just as well because life turned hectic. Editorial deadlines swamped me.…

I quickly lose interest in puzzles, especially mazes on paper. I get upset at all the choices. Stressed. Flummoxed. Discombobulated. Then I start drawing my way through, crashing blindly into one wrong turn after another. I think I see the way, only to discover I don't. I want off the page. My daughter Maggie approaches…

Have you ever wanted to give up? I mean surrender, with white flag waving, after trying your best and getting nowhere? Smashing into that brick wall and discovering it hasn't shifted a single inch? Plotting and planning a course forward and ending up farther behind? I have. After 3 months of revising a manuscript, I…

We finally moved into a house with a walk-in pantry. Cliff discovered this 1859 historical treasure had a flour bin, not that we planned on hitching up the wagon to fetch 100-pound sacks of the stuff. Just interesting. Our moves always involve a scramble of opening boxes, sometimes accurately labeled. Filling kitchen cabinetry was easy,…

When I assembled the lighted village for 2020, it was the same but different. No carolers, shoppers, Goodwill band, children building snowmen, or Santa. Even the man waiting on the park bench was absent. All were inside, sheltering in place, hoping to survive the pandemic. Like the three of us. Maggie was sent home in…

We all respond to certain sounds. Down the street from us, the village fire station blasts a siren for emergencies. Like it or not, we hear it loud and clear, as volunteers race to their post. Hardly front-line responders ourselves, our hearts beat with concern, nevertheless. Our neighbors Rob and Beth also stand ready, listening.…

I never knew about bucket lists until a movie came out with that title. Whenever people talk about their lists, traveling is usually involved. Exotic. Adventurous. I thought about that. I've been on a Mexican bus stopped at midnight by armed outlaws in the jungle. When they boarded, passengers shouted "Dos Gringos!" and pointed to…

Some people blow out candles and wish. Some people close their eyes and pray. Some people cross their fingers and hope. I watch everywhere, all the time, for three things. They rise up before me--these tiny miracles--tucked into ordinary settings. Had I been looking the other way, I would have missed them. But I wasn't.…

Several years ago, a young woman asked me the secret to a long marriage. As if I were a Wise Woman with a stone tablet. As if I were a Unicorn surrounded by a Truth and Beauty Rainbow. As if there is a secret. But now after 41 years of marriage, I can offer this.…

To pick up where I ended in my last post, it happened a block from our house. Maggie was walking our dog down the sidewalk. A man in a pickup backed down his driveway without paying any attention. Maggie quickly stepped out of the way to let him pass. Her movement must have alerted him…

When I told my mother we were adopting a baby from China, she said, "Honey, are you sure? People say such mean things." Not that I thought she was wrong, but I had no idea what Maggie would face in Whiteville--two white parents with white friends and relatives, living in white neighborhoods, attending mostly white…

PROLOGUE May begins tomorrow. I hesitated to write a blog post about my Easter event from April. I asked Maggie, hoping she'd say, "Blow it off, Mom." Instead, she replied, "The virus has thrown everyone off. Write it anyway, even if Easter happened weeks ago. If it really bothers you, throw in a reference to…

TV pundits assure us that every hardship--even a pandemic--has a silver lining. Eventually. For now at least, our household has settled in for the long haul because of the coronavirus. I know it's deadly, but every time they show another graphic of it, all I can see are the squishy toys Maggie loved as a…

Face it. Once commercial enterprises latch onto a holiday, no one can live up to the expectations. If you didn't gift your sweetheart with jewelry, you failed. Roses count, as long as it was a dozen. A teddy bear bigger than your sofa? You're kidding yourself. Over 40 years ago, Cliff and I celebrated our…

I love winter's early darkness, whirling snowflakes, and the frosted stillness of a white field. Woolly sweaters are my friends. I tolerate spring and count the days until summer ends. But autumn's charms are not lost on me. In fact, a wedding this past autumn stays with me even now in a freezing Midwestern January.…

Turtles go mostly unnoticed. They aren't gorgeous or dramatic or cuddly. Still, they win the race against the hotshot rabbit who peers back and, assuming he's won, naps with victory assured. The turtle trods along with eyes on the sunny horizon. Step by faithful step. Persistence, whatever the speed, wins. We persist, too. Whatever the…

Milan, Ohio is a curious small town with a spirit of wanderlust. Wonderlust, too. In the 19th century, farmers could watch a ship sail along the field. At least that's how it looked. In reality, the ship floated down a canal, the state's deepest, allowing it to reach Lake Erie. On November 26th, 2019, farmers…

Every Thanksgiving my mother was up against a lot. Highly styled dinner tables glimmered on magazine covers. Newspaper articles debated the superior turkey brands. Recipes marched down her kitchen counter. A copper mold decision for cranberry sauce hung in the troubled air. She agonized through November, torching her perfectionism into raging flames. Gradually I understood…

I have never roasted a turkey. Just the thought of trying it has terrified me throughout my adult life. Not that I blame my mother, but I was imprinted early with the belief that it was an ordeal. Buzzing alarm in the morning darkness. Muttering when the thawing wasn't complete. Thud-thumping as she wrestled stuffing…