Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

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Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Of Life and Love

  • They grow so fast…

    They grow so fast, our little girls. One minute they're so small, dependent, glued to your side for protection and comfort… …the next they're letting go, passing you up, ready to face the world on their own. It makes you proud. It makes you wistful. It makes you feel so, so blessed. Happy 21st birthday…

  • Feels so right on a Friday the 13th

    I've been sitting here listening to Alabama's Greatest Hits, getting all sappy, thinking back to another Friday the 13th almost 30 years ago when I said "I do"… … and thinking even further back to that night at Gilley's just a year earlier when Alabama sang "Feels so right…" and Tom and I were the…

  • Happiness?

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” ~ Declaration of Independence  An armadillo shell lies on my back deck. I gave up tossing it into the woods.…

  • Ghosts of Fourths Past, Revisited

    I'll be celebrating our country's birthday today by earning a paycheck at the winery. How much more American is that?  But while I'm standing there listening to music, smiling and serving customers, sweating in the summer heat and hoping for at least a glimpse of fireworks, my mind will be drifting back to Fourths of…

  • Almonds and other sweet!s of the week

    He was dirty and carried a cardboard sign ever closer to my car that said something like "Homeless Need a Job Hungry God Bless."  I focused on the "hungry" and rolled down my window. My son was with me, so I felt safe. "Would you like some almonds?" I asked, holding out a snack-sized ziplock…

  • …whispering hope

    I sat on the porch swing this evening listening to David Gray and watching the cardinal couple dine at the feeder. Just as the sun slipped below the trees, I felt myself slipping, too, into worry about the future. But right away I hit the brakes and scrambled back up to reality. It hit me…

  • A Father…

    A father gives advice  A father nourishes the body  and the soul    A father encourages A father reads A father lends a hand  A father plays    A father offers support    A father sticks close by your side   A father makes memories A father teaches  A father laughs    A father is…

  • Passing Time in Whataburger

    I found myself with a few hours to kill one morning this week with nary a Starbucks in sight. So I stepped into the next best thing – a Whataburger. I knew they'd have coffee, a restroom, air-conditioning, and space for reading and writing the time away. Everything I needed. "You doing alright, ma'am?" It was…

  • On Martha and Friendship and Tomorrows

    I heard Garth Brooks sing "If Tomorrow Never Comes…" on the radio the other day. It was the same day that I heard about the unexpected passing of one of my mom's closest friends. Mama and Martha went to the same high school but didn't become friends until they worked for the same company years…

  • Imagineers, Mountain Pinks, and Sweets of the Week

    Wouldn't it be fun to answer "Imagineer" on forms asking your occupation? I've spent the past few days filling out applications and sending my eclectic resume off with a prayer into internet-land. "Are you our Imagineer?" was the title of one job post, and I thought "Yes! Yes, I believe I am!" I'm still waiting…