Daily Thoughts
Cascades of Color & Light
I suppose it’s only natural for nostalgia to inch its way into our minds as the days go by. One of the things that can spark a strong sense of nostalgia for me and for my girls are photos that call to mind specific memories and moments of their younger selves. For my...
Trial + Error = Growth
When our girls were younger and Halloween rolled around each year, we would do the things a lot of folks do, finding costume ideas and preparing for trick or treating, usually Halloween Strolls planned in one of the many small towns in our Western North Carolina area....
A Stray Cat Strut
When I was a teenager, a rockabilly group, The Stray Cats, started growing in popularity and a few of their songs made it on my list of favorites at the time, which was sometime in the early 1980s. Those songs included Rock This Town, The Stray Cat Strut, and (She’s)...
Making a Splash
Among the common bird songs and calls of summer, only one truly makes a splash and it is one with which many of us are quite familiar. Marco! Momentary pause. Polo! This call and response makes a splash every summer in and around pools everywhere. And this summer...
They Open My Eyes
As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently started reading The Wings of Fire series alongside my oldest teenager and it has been a wonderful point of connection for the two of us directly, and with my youngest indirectly. All three of us tend to talk about the...
Not Disappointed in Their Disappointment
Experiencing disappointment is never easy, no matter how old we are or how many times we’ve experienced it before. It still tends to sting and stir up our emotions, emotions that are seemingly incongruous at best and difficult to sift through and process. Still, I...
Holding Fast to Small Sparks of Joy
Recently I have been reflecting on the idea of small beginnings. Small beginnings and baby steps along unknown paths toward the things that for me provide a spark of joy but can also carry uncertainty. If I am honest with myself, this likely has almost always been the...
The Inner Voice of Truth
I’m not sure when exactly my love of reading transformed into a desire that included wanting to write, or how that desire took root in my heart and mind. Because while I have many happy memories around reading—trips to the library, reading books in my class in which...
Putting the Flex in Flexibility
As with many children, especially toddlers, there was a time when our girls were young when they were far more stubborn than flexible. About pretty much anything. And everything. I took this all in stride because I remembered a story my mom liked to tell about one of...