Adventure Awaits
Whispering Pines Nature Trail at Tyler State Park - Photo by the author I've been wondering, lately, what I'll leave behind. What mark will I make on the world? Not that I'm planning to kick off anytime soon, but recent events have certainly brought that to mind. When you have to gear up for a … Continue reading Leave the Right Trace
Ladonia Fossil Park - Photo by the author On a sunny Sunday afternoon Andrew and I drove to Ladonia, Texas to look for fossils. They’d been waiting for discovery some eighty million years, so we were in no particular hurry to arrive. Small towns with quaint names peppered the map along the path we traveled … Continue reading Finding Fossils in Ladonia, Texas
Photo by the author - Ammonite fossil on the hiking trail at Cleburne State Park, Texas There are times when you just have to go somewhere. I imagine every unmasked stranger carries not just Covid-19, but some alien spore that will launch from their chest like a special effect in a John Carpenter movie. We … Continue reading Here We Go A-Wandering
Photo by the author My husband Andrew and I have both been working from home the past few weeks. There have been some adjustments related to space. We’ve agreed all pooping is to take place in the bathroom farthest from where our desks are set up. It’s funny the things you notice when you spend … Continue reading Did I Say That Out Loud?
Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.– Thich Nhat Hanh Photo by the author - image enhanced with the Waterlogue App We got our produce delivery today and the box included four bananas. I still have two bananas left … Continue reading Are You Going Bananas?
Photo by Terrye Turpin I hope everyone is safe and snug at home. I've given up the search for toilet paper. Instead I hear my mother's ghost warning me each time I approach the bathroom. Toilet paper must have cost more in the 70s. "Don't use so much! Stop spinning that roll!" Mom grew up … Continue reading Where Do You Go When You Can’t Go Out?
Photo by Janderson Tulio on Unsplash I wandered into the dark room at the museum and stepped through into another dimension. Sound surrounded me - soft voices lifting in song and sweet notes issuing from musical instruments. The experience of viewing The Visitors, a video art installation by Ragnar Kjartansson, haunted me long after I’d left the … Continue reading The Music You’ll Hear in Heaven
It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m looking for Santa. Not the jolly elf in red pajamas, my Santa is a six-inch tall ceramic bank. He’s just like the one my mom had, the one she saved quarters in all year to have money for Christmas. Mine doesn’t have quarters. It came without the rubber stopper at … Continue reading Searching for Santa
When I was seven years old, my parents lost me at the State Fair of Texas. Their last sight of me, I’d slipped into a crowd of folks shuffling into a garish tent on the midway. I imagine them watching as I stood in line, my hair done up in twin pony-tails in the style … Continue reading Freaks at the Fair
The places we visit are never as perfect as they are in our memory. My grandmother’s house in Farmersville, Texas no longer exists. A remodeled version of the Dairy Queen I visited as a barefoot child sits beside the highway and still serves up chocolate dipped cones and cheeseburgers. You can see the Dairy Queen … Continue reading The Onion Capitol
