A Circle of Quiet

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Clear:2020

October 15, 2020

My word for 2020 is CLEAR. It seems a bit ironic now, but I am confident it was the right word. At the end of 2019 I had zero idea of what 2020's word would be. I was sitting in the car one day in December, wondering what to choose, when...and I kid you not...I literally HEARD, "The word for the year is CLEAR." I am not a "I heard the voice of God" person, I don't use language like "I was led" or "I was told." Not saying that is good, just saying that is me. And I am very serious when I tell you I heard a voice tell me the word was CLEAR. I was a little shaken, but I went with it. Not really any choice in the matter at that point, right? And now it is October and 2020 has been a wild ride. Or is that too much of an understatement? It seems that murky would have been a great word. Chaos. How about Confusion? Or dissention? Cacophony? Why Clear? Maybe I needed to remember that some things are not conditional. Even in the midst of all the

Mama and Claire

January 31, 2018

My beautiful mother Ready to ride, but lipstick on point. Movie star beauty with a no-nonsense expression. She was a mother to be proud of. I wish I could have seen her ride. I know it gave her so much joy, but she left that part of her life behind when she moved to California and started a family. Every now and then, these pictures would surface and she would get that far away smile that told me she was reliving memories of freedom, of dusty Colorado trails, of the wind in her auburn curls. It is now seven years since Mom's death. I usually do very well with the day-to-day missing, but right now we are preparing for Claire to head out on another adventure, and I cannot help but think how much she would love to watch the flurry of leaving and to be here to cheer her on. They really understood each other, Mom and Claire. Claire lives in the granny flat now, and she has made it her own version of beautiful. But now her eyes are looking elsewhere, as she leav

Confessions of a hover mother

January 24, 2018

It was the end of a lovely five-week visit from our college freshman. He was home during basketball season because he is red-shirting this year and also recovering from a knee injury. It was great to have him here, especially because chances are we won't have long stretches of time with him during the holidays for the next few years. I hear they get "a few hours to go home for Thanksgiving dinner, and a few days for Christmas." So we soaked in the five weeks. He worked hard on our property, and the clean hillsides, the absence of dump piles and the rearranged bookcases are evidence that it was not all Netflix and parties over break. But suddenly he was confronted with something he missed: a scholarship deadline. Bren's athletic scholarship covers tuition and fees at this point, so he is in need of housing/food/personal expense funding. His generous Nana set up a college account for each of her grandchildren, and that is helping. But it will not last long at this ra

Courage:2018

January 13, 2018

For the last few years, I have chosen a word to focus on. 2015's word was mercy, 2017's was hope, and no one remembers if 2016 even had a word. It was kind of a tough year. 2018's word is COURAGE. I have realized more and more over the last year how many things frighten me. That is hard for me to admit, but there you have it. I was a very fearful child. Afraid of the dark. Afraid of being alone. Afraid of roller coasters, snakes...you name it. I thought that was not true of me anymore, but I think what is more accurate is that I had stopped doing things that frighten me. I had started playing life safe. Another realization I have had is that fear is the driving force behind my battle with procrastination. It is so much easier to not do something if it scares me. But the sad fact is that as I put off things that scare me, those fears sit in the back of my mind for much longer than they need to. If I can face my fears instead of putting them off, I anticipate it

Well, here we go...

January 07, 2018

My inspiration, on her way back to Halifax on New Year's Eve Over Christmas break, my daughter Madelaine talked to me about blogging...why I stopped blogging, would I be open to starting again, how about a weekly post? You see, she lives in Nova Scotia now, and not only does it FEEL really far away, it IS really far away. We stay in touch with calls and texts, the occasional silly FB messenger video, but she suggested that a weekly blog post would add something of substance. Plus, we both love words, we both like to write, but writing for pleasure doesn't happen for us without some sort of external motivation. So, here we go. Weekly posts. HI MADELAINE!!! *Waving madly across the country to the frozen world of the Maritimes.*

The continuing adventure of Neville (the Lone White Duck)

June 23, 2014

I wrote a post last September about a duck who had appeared on our neighborhood pond. He continues to strut his spunky white feathers all around the neighborhood. In fact, just a few weeks ago traffic was stopped right where I needed to turn onto our one lane road, and as I leaned out to see what the traffic issue was, I saw Neville leading a group of geese across the road. I felt like I was sitting in the midst of Make Way for Ducklings! I am grateful everyone stopped to watch the show. Neville is adorable, but he doesn't waddle very fast. Neville's charming approach to life has kept my mind spinning and I am in the final stages of re-writing, critiquing and preparing the story of his arrival for submission to an agent and publisher. I am hoping it will be a lovely picture book for young children. It is intimidating to venture further into the writing world than I ever have before. I am amazed at how quickly fear can thwart creativity, and how much the