Where seeds of thought have room to grow
Category: Of Life and Love
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Vacation is over for sure. Reality smacked me in the face this past week as I tried to pay bills and found myself scraping the bottom of the piggy bank after a week or two of NO income. (A week for Tom, thanks to Freescale's mandatory "one week a quarter off without pay" ordinance, and…
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This day will come and go quickly, just like all the others this summer…this past year…the past eighteen years…but one thing is different: with the coming and going of this day, my baby will turn eighteen. I get to spend the day with her – we've spent more time together the last few weeks than…
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"My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue…an everlasting vision of the everchanging view. A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold. A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold…" Carole King's words touched something inside me the first time I heard them thirty-eight years ago, triggering a longing for richness, depth…
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Two months after Tommy was born in 1985, my nephew Evan arrived. He's always been a bundle of energy…smart, inquisitive, restless….and at the same time family-oriented…devoted, loving, loyal. The restless part of his personality led him to Wyoming on a job; the loving part is going to keep him there. A day or two before the…
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"It is the familiar that usually eludes us in life. What is before our nose is what we see last." ~William Barrett, American philosopher and professor. Relevant words, especially for these days…celebrating fathers, remembering a friend's son, and looking ahead to when I really take Kendall to college…in only a few short weeks. These are hectic, heartbreaking, busy…
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The minute I set eyes on my firstborn, I felt that fear…that pain of imagined loss. Until I was a mother, I didn't have an inkling of the kind of fear a parent lives with every day – the death of your child. But it is born along with your baby and you carry it with you long…
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Tom and I were driving up to Maryland for the first time so I could meet his family and childhood friends before our wedding. It was my first time in Tennessee, the Carolinas and all of those other states between Texas and Maryland. What a fabulous trip – seeing the sunrise just outside of Nashville,…
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Sometimes I'm just not a very good wife. Today is Tom's birthday and I was totally unprepared. After work, I made a mad dash into town to do things I should have already taken care of…like getting him a present (or three – thanks for the tips, Robert!), a card, and picking up a cheesecake. (Dinner,…
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It's ironic. Growing up, I didn't dream of being a mother. I preferred toy guns, my bicycle, and stuffed animals over baby dolls. When I peered into my future, I pictured a college degree and some kind of unconventional career, like architect, archaeologist or journalist. Never teacher or nurse. I didn't think about getting married…
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I was around three, my brother Donnie eight, when I spotted the mysterious box on the edge of our driveway. I can picture Donnie approaching it, picture his shocked face, hear him scream "Run!" as the snakes, dozens and dozens of them, poured out of the box, slithering down the sides and along the ground after us.…
Long Hollow 