It’s sunny today, but cold and breezy. I will probably walk later when it’s a little warmer, but for now I’m looking at the bright day from my window. The trees have turned! It is beautiful here in Southwest Missouri. I am grateful for everything I can see out my window. This is a month especially for gratitude. Thanksgiving is on the 25th this year, and the first thing I am thankful for is that ...
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I am posting this early so you can get prepared for World Smile Day on Friday, October 1. The first Friday of October every year is World Smile Day. What a wonderful idea that originated with the yellow smiley face icon created by Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Massachusetts, who designed it for a State Mutual Life Insurance company advertising campaign in 1963. His original intent was that it would spread goodwill and cheer ...
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Most of us are celebrating and honoring those first responders to Covid-19 and other major health and disaster issues especially in this month of Labor Day. We’ve taken them for granted in the past, but recently we have been putting them up front and center recognizing their tireless work in these, “the worst of times.” They represent some of the traits in people that are good about our country: bravery, resilience, compassion, dedication, and respect ...
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As I write this I have just returned from the grocery store with quite a few bags of food. I don’t have to think about what I can buy or how much, but there are those in our city and country who can’t even go to the grocery store let alone buy sufficient food for themselves or their families. In this rich country of plenty, no one should have to go hungry, but there are ...
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As we celebrate our freedom from the tyranny of being ruled by a country across the ocean, I would like to be able to celebrate freedom for all of us in this country: black, white, brown, Native Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ, immigrants, refugees, and all other people who call the US home. This is a huge country; there is room for all of us to live peacefully and together. I’m not sure why we aren’t ...
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I have been reading my poetry occasionally on a virtual open mic based in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It is called Wednesday Night Poetry, WNP. For almost all its life, it has been live in person in a coffee shop in Hot Springs – until the pandemic struck. Because it is the longest running open mic in the country, Kai Coggin, the host, took it to Facebook to keep it going. We send videos of our ...
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Anna Jarvis created Mother’s Day in the US in 1907 when she celebrated her mother in a memorial service at St. Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. She lobbied to make it a national holiday, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson declared it a national holiday to be celebrated on the second Sunday in May. It originally was meant to be dedicated to peace, as Anna Jarvis was a peace activist, but it wasn’t long ...
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My magnolias are blooming in full! They started a couple of weeks ago during a very cold snap, and I told them I hoped they wouldn’t be disappointed. They carried on, however, and in what seemed to be only hours, they burst open to spring. The air is full of their fragrance, and fallen blossoms carpet the new grass coming up. I guess it was time after all. Every year I marvel at how quickly ...
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It’s been a year since the Covid-19 pandemic began. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to believe I’ve been wearing a mask, physical distancing and spending a lot of time at home alone for an entire year. One would think the year would have dragged, but for me it has raced on by, and here I am in March, 2021 already. There seems to be hope now, with two, and soon ...
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A friend of mine and I meet weekly at my house for breakfast, conversation and writing. We have been writing alpha poems for the past few weeks using the word “light.” An alpha poem, or acrostic, uses each letter of a word as the first letter in a line of poetry: Lingering in a spot of sun coming through my window, I ignore work that needs to be done. Instead I Give myself a moment ...
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