“Sometimes you just need a break in a beautiful place alone.” The “Words for Women” social media site, which is the source of this quote, declares its purpose is to share “the words we all need to hear.” Men included. Doodling, I crossed out “alone” and substituted “with someone you love” as, I believe, the […]
Letter: Love and Healing in the Woods
As you wander about the forest, where the river runs nearby, you might see them here and there, now and then, not often, and mostly you would pass them by unseen. Unless you are wandering for that express purpose, wanting to find some source of help for your troubled heart, some sign you are not […]
Letter: The Legacy of the Leaf
A “gem among native plants,” the trillium flower in the forest is “like finding a secret treasure that only nature could hide so well,” extolled a gardening website. These native beauties – treasures in the forest, bestowed with exceptional grace, adorned with delicate beauty, dressed as if attending a gala, with flowing silk of intricate […]
Letter: That’s Love Isn’t It
It’s a magical place, the forest. Unearthly quiet, shadows deep, filtered sunlight, the faint sound of the river the only disturbance of the silence, and that not at all distracting but rather serving as an orchestral interlude, a soft, pleasant melody, accompanying you on your explorations. Your breathing is not labored given you’re going so […]
Letter: She’s the Reason
Flowers are beautiful whether we notice them or not. And sometimes in the flower garden the sheer number of flowers may mean individual flowers – their own exquisite beauty, their own delicate artistry, all that makes up the characteristics fairly shouting their identity – are not seen. But then there she is. And you stop, […]
Letter: Loving in the Rain
“Singin’ in the Rain” was the centerpiece of the film by that title (1952) in which Gene Kelly memorably dances to the song “while splashing through puddles during a rainstorm in California.” “Why am I smilin’ and why do I sing?Why does December seem sunny as Spring?Why do I get up each morning to startAnd get […]
Letter: Home
‘The back-eddies of the flowing river reflected our tears, the drooping willows – on which we hung our harps – matched our spirits,’ describes the Israeli captives in Babylon of ancient history as they thought of home. Home. The astronauts of Gemini 7, in December of 1965, as they returned from then the longest flight […]
Letter: What Is Love Anyway?
My wife and I had given it to our little granddaughter. It was the softest, impossibly long lop-eared, scraggle-furred, stuffed rabbit, affectionately, and appropriately – per the tag – named ‘Harey.’ When my wife died our granddaughter gave it back thinking perhaps that I was lonely. I was. So, dutifully, to humor our granddaughter, when […]
Letter: “We Can Do This Dad!”
Just days from now my wife and I would be going somewhere in our little green bug to celebrate her birthday. The car was a gift from our kids on the occasion of our 50th Anniversary, a VW Beetle of nearly the same year as the year we were married, the same make and model as […]