Archive for January 2014
What Sports Cars and Physics Can Teach Our Families
Photo credit: Maciek, Creative Commons, cc Sizzling Latino music rumbas through a sunny south-facing living room. Creamy light bounces dazzlingly off white sculpted snow drifts outside to dribble across red pillows and dented couch cushions inside. Wind-carved ledges hang off the roof, drape the deck, and swoop grandly through our yard. Swing-set chains disappear unexpectedly…
Read MoreTo the Peach Pie God
Photo credit to Curtis Palmer, Creative Commons, cc The news from the big box company who wants to move in across the road from us and the pertinent land owner strikes fear in us. We look at cold hard facts and know that we can no longer stay in this home, but the realization leaves…
Read MoreHow to Heat Up Any Frosted Marriage
Photo Credit: Sami Ben Garbia, Creative Commons cc Arctic chills coat the lower corner of the window with ice and send cold drafts into me. I shiver in my green long sleeves, wishing I had a sweater with me. Bob Marley sings through the coffee shop speakers, and a three-person business meeting continues at the…
Read MoreHe Came in from the Woods and He Said It Straight Up
He came in from the woods and he said it straight up. It was evident he knew who he was. It wasn’t his family name, or his dad’s career. It wasn’t a past accomplishment he’d been hanging onto with fingers tight. He just came in from the woods and the wild, and he said it…
Read MoreFighting Back Against Family Sick Days
Quiet rasping snores from my five year old at the table caught my attention. His yogurt sat untouched beside him, blonde tousled head resting on a green-striped right arm, while his feet curled into chair rungs below him. A moment later, his body startled awake and I carried him, protesting, to bed. For two days,…
Read MoreThe Song that Will Blow You Away & Change How You See Everything
Image Source: © Subbotina | Dreamstime.com At a table with shiny olive oil spills, amid scattered bread crumbs and wrinkled Mediterranean olives, they would have pushed back their wine cups and straightened to sing. And we’ve all had that — a moment when familiar lyrics suddenly have deeper personal meaning to us, and it leaves us…
Read MoreUm, There’s Someone Behind You…
Photo Credit to Thierry Gregorius Rigor mortis drapes fingertips long on our Christmas tree still sparkling beside me. Fragrant pine needles wafted long after December 25th so I didn’t have the heart to throw it away then. Now the scent has passed, though, and it’s time. Alongside strong French coffee this week, I’ve been following…
Read MoreMartians Home for Dinner
Photo courtesy of NASA Vivaldi traipses scales in violins and lutes tonight while a deep white frost encases the glass on our front door. Record-breaking arctic windchills blast the Midwest, and Minnesotans everywhere huddle indoors today, after jump-starting frozen autos and avoiding the wind. Car dashboards blink temperatures in the negative, and tv news anchors…
Read MoreHe Asked Me With His Eyes
Photographed by Steve Bingham, Old Man He stood between snowbanks on the passenger side of my car. Stopped at a red light, I read his cardboard sign, and studied the man holding it. A soft grey beard hung to his neck, and a woolen Russian hat wrapped around his ears and head. The gentleman’s eyes…
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