Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

recent posts

about

Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Of Life and Love

  • Five Things on Friday

    1. Last night I attended a funeral for the mother of one of my long-time, closest friends. Hers was one of the houses where we all congregrated, from middle school on up (I had my first kiss on the sidewalk in front of that house)… and now my friend opens up her home to all…

  • Birthdays, Austin Adventures, and other Sweet!s

    Once you reach a certain age, numbers become surreal. They change (faster and faster and faster) but you feel the same. Wasn't it only yesterday I was cage dancing in honor of my 50th birthday?  Way back in my thirties and forties, I set some goals for myself. By my 50th birthday, I planned to…

  • Coach Christine, Queen of the Cosmos

    We could hear her screaming from the other side of the soccer field, giving directions, shouting encouragement, and even growling disapproval at bad calls, voicing our own outrage so effectively we didn't have to.  She was the epitome of a Mama Bear, fierce, loving, and protective of all of the girls on the Cosmos, TG's…

  • Aging with grace. What does that mean, anyway?

    I stepped into the classroom of second graders and made my way to the teacher’s desk. “Are you someone’s grandmother?” one little munchkin asked.  “No, I’m the substitute teacher,” I said with forced smile, trying to recover from such a fierce Reality Check that early in the morning, and making myself promise not to hold…

  • Labor(er)s of Love

    I had fifteen minutes before my meeting started. A guest was going to be telling us about a project he had initiated. I wanted to get a look at it beforehand, so I arrived early – for once – and headed to the woods behind the church with my camera. …At least, there used to…

  • Instructions on Finding a Keeper

    I'm combining both of today's Scintilla prompts into one: "What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told? Why? Would you tell the truth now, if you could?"  "Tell the story about something interesting (anything!) that happened to you, but tell it in the form of an instruction manual (Step 1, Step 2, Step 3….)"   1.…

  • Make Good Art (Life)

    Last night I stepped away from my computer before midnight for a change, set my alarm for 4:30 am, and before drifting off to sleep, asked God to remind me when it went off that I was excited about getting up so early because I would have time to write. He did. And so, for…

  • If I could talk, I’d tell of…

    Births. Deaths. Certainly those. Celebrations for birthdays, for weddings, for the end of a drought and good crops. Tables in the yard, laden with food. Tantalizing smells wafting from the kitchen, promising more. Heartache. Loved ones who went to war and never returned. Arguments and screen doors slamming. Joyous reunions. Neighbors helping put out a…

  • A Little Sister, a Shower, and a Salt Lick

    I taught her how to drive a stick-shift – she caught on fast, much faster than my kids years later – and when her brother broke up with me, she wrote me poems to soothe my broken heart. She was barely a teenager back then, two years younger than me, and so in our split-high-school…

  • Five Things on Friday

        1. Our property is dotted with small iron crosses, marking the resting places of so many precious furry or feathered or scaly loved ones we've been blessed to know. I miss them all. The one above is Charly's and Frankie's.   2. I will never get rich monetarily through my blog, but the…