Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

recent posts

about

Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Personal Histories

  • An Irish Friendship Wish (Sweet!)

      Hope you're all having a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! Perhaps it seems odd to post a photo of a cemetery on this day, but this is no ordinary cemetery. It's a Shallue plot in Ireland. I didn't take the photograph, but I hope to visit it one day and pay my respects to my…

  • God Bless the Late Bloomers!

    Those things, good Lord, that we pray for, give us the grace to labor for. ~St. Thomas More   It's inside of me. I can feel it pushing, trying to stretch and uncurl its petals, this flower of mine. This flower of Me. Some days it's stronger than others and I feel it's almost there,…

  • Looking Back, Looking Forward

    "A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." ~ Thomas Mann If that's so, then I'm definitely a writer. There are times when writing isn't just difficult for me – it's pure hell. But other times it's heaven, and that's why I stand here in January of…

  • Gifts

    O Sunrise, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness:Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. This sunrise was a gift, a splash of tangerine through my window reminding me that light conquers darkness, that each new day is a promise fulfilled, a gift to savor. I rose at 4:30 this…

  • He would have been 64.

    Thoughts of my brother Buster flitted in and out of my mind today. My parents drove out to the cemetery as I'm sure they've done every October 16 for 29 years. As I'm sure I would do if I were in their place. I hope I'm never in their place. The following is a re-post…

  • Makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice…

    List-mode -noun  A state of being wherein a moderately organized compulsive listmaker falls behind on things she needs to do, usually due to a weekend out of town with her girlfriends, and can't help but make more lists in a feeble attempt to get caught up without forgetting something important.   1. Sigh. 2. The weekend…

  • On Dreams … and Sweet #5

    "Nothing happens unless first we dream." ~ Carl Sanburg So true. But dreams are just seeds – they don't bloom without the right conditions and it's up to us to help them along. We have to water them. Plant them where they'll get enough sunshine.  I've been prodded several times just in the past few…

  • A Tale of Wisconsin, Weddings and Whispers of the Past (p.s. you were right, Dean Endres)

    Back in 10th grade, full of Texas pride, I got into a heated argument with my boyfriend, a fresh transplant from Baraboo, Wisconsin, over the merits of our respective states. I don't think he was trying to say Wisconsin was better than Texas, only trying to describe its beauty and merits to me, but it…

  • The Sugar on Top

    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,…

  • A Glimpse Inside The Man

    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,…