Bobbie arrived home with a down-on-his-luck look. He knew his mother would be starting dinner soon. He had a question to ask and already knew the answer. He came through the back door and saw his mother pealing potatoes for dinner. He hated boiled potatoes, but it was one food his mother rarely burned. She […]
To Ponder
Let’s Talk! – A Deer Nibbles Apples Left to Rot in the Grass
Are you sitting comfortably, your screens switched off, waiting to discuss or ponder another prompt from my friend Tyrean Martinson’s book over dinner? Want me to start or finish with my take on it? Here you are! I was probably around seven or eight when my grandparents took me and my family to a deer […]
Letter: Rings Without Diamonds
“How much farther?” I have often thought on the trail of posing myself that question of other hikers. When the two young ladies asked the question of me, I replied, “You don’t want to ask.” They laughed, I think a bit nervously, and headed on down the trail as I labored on up the ever […]
Across the Fence: Seltzer
I ran into the English Germanism Seltzer during my very first visit in the U.S. as a fifteen-year-old. My uncle in Maine loved to drink Seltzer with just a hint of natural fruit flavor. I tasted it and cringed. When I returned to Germany and told my mother about it, she stated, “You must have […]
Letter: One Last Row
The treasure of my life answered my call. “Would you come pick me up? I hit a big metal buoy and sunk my boat.” My partner on this adventure called marriage we launched 41 years ago retrieved me from the side of the road and the day after Christmas that year she helped me re-launch […]
Par for the Course
Gerry sat down for coffee. When the coffee came, he laid down his Seattle Times and sipped a little and then just closed his eyes and remembered. He thought about the girl he had almost married. She was a beauty and an eye stopper. Seen together almost everyone looked at Sherry and ignored Gerry. That […]
A Chair for Free
I had dragged two chairs out to the street. I was hoping someone would need both decent looking chairs for their home, but no . . . . someone just stopped some time a day or two later and drove off with one and never returned for the second. It was summer time, so I […]
Letter: Just Walking Each Other Home
Seven years ago yesterday my wife and I bought two of the remaining limited-time significantly discounted “America the Beautiful Lifetime National Parks and Federal Lands Pass” thinking not only was it a good deal (my wife was Dutch and therefore frugal and definitely the brains in the family), but also that we would together return […]
Letter: When the Forest Weeps
There is such incredible beauty when the forest weeps. Though the far shore of the tiny high mountain lake had disappeared in the mist seen wafting down over the top of the ridge and descending wraith-like upon the little meadow, the near shore was resplendent in splashes of color dominated by beautiful blue lupin but […]