About Me
Introduction
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A Very Small Stage
Dear Footnotes Readers, Unofficially and unannounced and unexplained, I took the month of July off from writing a weekly blog. I understand that a lot of blog writers take off all or part of the summer. I failed to announce a break and I apologize for not letting you know. In the meantime, I have been putting together an ebook, editing a memoir manuscript that is starting to grow fur like the fungus on mushrooms, and gone back and forth to our little cabin in the woods of Southeastern Colorado, with a grandson’s wedding in-between. Miles and smiles and more than a few dilemmas, as even in summer, daily life…
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A Time to Pivot
This is my 200th blog, posted on this website that I created using a WordPress Theme (there are thousands to choose from). I spent a lot of time last summer revising the appearance, choosing a new theme, and working to make your reading experience better. Start Logic hosts my website for annual fees that include security so that I don’t get hacked and neither do you. My husband supports this endeavor, just as he has every venture I have attempted since we married. What a crazy resumé that would make. Is writing my blog a hobby or more important than that? I’ve been asking myself this question for the past…
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“O Christmas Tree” and Me
Merchants are not the only ones who begin decorating in October. When I visited the Biltmore House and Estate in Asheville, North Carolina on October 19, Christmas trees had been decorated and set in nearly every public room of the 250 room mansion built in 1895. That’s right. 1895. Traditions around the evergreen tree and branches date back centuries to the Egyptians but became popular during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria who married Prince Albert from Germany. In the 1500s, Germany began bringing evergreen trees into homes at Christmas (“O Tannenbaum”) and in the 1800s, the decorated tree tradition made its way across the ocean to America. Here’s a…
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You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Fifteen days, ten states, and 3,170 miles later, my first morning back home almost felt as if I’d never left. Familiar and comforting and reassuring, Home Sweet Home. My daughter informs me homeostasis is the term that describes how the brain seeks comfort, avoids pain, and resists change. So why in the world do I want to travel? First day back home, I awoke to 38 degrees, plunging into Fall, cold and wet. I settled into my morning routine: coffee, reading, a visit with my younger daughter and granddaughter Charlotte. I like to begin the day in first gear, not overdrive. So why would I ever leave home? “When I…
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The Easter Question: Hast Thou No Scar, No Wound?
Leading up to Easter, I’ve been thinking about this question for weeks now. Hast thou no scar? No wound? A poem by missionary Amy Carmichael lodged those few words in my mind decades ago when I read a biography about Amy’s life. A missionary from Ireland to India for more than 50 years, Amy never took a furlough, meaning she never went back to her homeland. Instead, she started an orphanage that saved countless young girls (and later young boys) from prostitution associated with Hindu religious practices. Bedridden from an injury the last 20 years of her 83 years of life, Amy devoted those years to her writing and to…
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People Are Complicated. So Are Bridges.
In a message by Dr. Earl Palmer, he used the Golden Gate Bridge to illustrate a basic truth about life. He said that the “secret” of this monumental bridge’s strength and stability depends on two main cables. These cables he compared to simplicity and flexibility. It still amazes me when a situation triggers memory of an illustration I heard a long, long time ago. While seeking simplicity, my life still gets complicated. The design of this “eighth wonder of the world in Northern California” does not depend on hundreds of cables strung all over the bay area like a web. Instead, 2 main cables anchored in bedrock on each side…
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Clock Faces: Time Only Moves Forward
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” William Penn The psalmist wrote words to remind you and me to number our days in order to apply our hearts to wisdom. [1] Easier said than done. Right? Clock by Linda Pastan Sometimes it really upsets me—the way the clock’s hands keep moving, even when I’m just sitting here not doing anything at all, not even thinking about anything Why or why not? except, right now, about that clock and how it can’t keep its hands still. Even in the dark I picture it, and all its brother and sister clocks and watches, even sundials, all those compulsive…