Remembering December 28th for the 28th Time

Hello from the living room as I listen to some Christmas music and look at winter scenes, Time is such an incredibly complex experience, continually dualistic, seeming like things of our former life could not be so far past (it was only a decade ago when it’s been 25 years or more) and let whenContinue reading “Remembering December 28th for the 28th Time”

Imagining a Christmas Spirit

Hello from the living room of my sister-in-law, When I was small, this day was a day of anticipation, a day of incredible cookies, candies, Norwegian delights, and church with candles and carols. It would not be until later I would learn to decorate the house into a fairytale of my own, and make bothContinue reading “Imagining a Christmas Spirit”

Memories of Love

Hello from my new space, It’s been a good day and a half, and a great deal has been accomplished. Since returning from the Thanksgiving trip to Iowa, I have worked to recover from a serious cold, and packed in the various remedies, including homemade Chicken Noodle soup. I still have a cough, though productive,Continue reading “Memories of Love”

Wishing or Needing?

Hello from Millworks Coffee Shop, I am in the Quad Cities on the Iowa/Illinois border both to visit family for Thanksgiving as well as complete a major piece of collecting and managing what has been a fragmented first year of retirement. A moment in a coffee shop brings back so many memories from writing aContinue reading “Wishing or Needing?”

Seasons and Siblings

Hello from a low-key Friday afternoon The metaphor of seasons is well-known, and its use across the genres of art is extensive. Immediately, Vivaldi’s classic Four Seasons, comes to mind, or another Italian, artist, Giuseppe Arcimbold painted four paintings on the seasons given to HRE Maximillian II. Scottish poet, James Thomson composed poems on tueContinue reading “Seasons and Siblings”

Struggling with my Scars

Hello from the hotel, I am continually amazed by the way our lives seem to be in an ending tension of sorts, the sort of push and pull between things that seem diametrically opposed. We are, on occasion, profoundly short-sighted while simultaneously planning things long-term. We are ostensibly pleased with our daily existence while worryingContinue reading “Struggling with my Scars”

Grandma, I Miss You

Hello from my little corner, Sometimes we are called to remember, to give thanks for those things, places, or events, which in some way influence or define the person we’ve become. I think there are definitely those things or events that are quite easy to point to for me. Collectively, health has been a seriesContinue reading “Grandma, I Miss You”

Nomad-life and a new Education

Hello from the mountainside, For the last 10 days, and foreseeable future, with a required trip to Pennsylvania sandwiched in, and before another wedding in Georgia, I am at a bus building camp in somewhat North Central Tennessee. The address is technically Spencer, but I am seven miles away or so, on Baker Mountain. TheContinue reading “Nomad-life and a new Education”

American Gothic and My Iowa Roots

Hello from rural Mallard, It’s about the end of the day, the sun is setting, I can smell livestock from the hog containment facility down the road, and yes, there are flies (scads of them). It was a productive day as I got the weather stripping for the main bus door ordered, and the majorityContinue reading “American Gothic and My Iowa Roots”

When the Daily Norm is anything but . . .

Hello from my desk on the mini-Acre, I have been commenting, grading, and managing student writing most of the weekend. It is Sunday evening, and the 1st of October. We are into the last quarter of yet another year, soon what will be a third of another decade, and not that far away from anotherContinue reading “When the Daily Norm is anything but . . .”