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Lifestyle

Leaves of Grass

The sun is out today, but not too long ago it was rainy, blustery, and gloomy. And as much as I tried to rise above the weather, it affected me. I got all gloomy and doomy, too. Like the sky, my thoughts darkened. Like the wind, my mood was gusty, resulting in a type of spiritual whiplash. I resorted to sappy TV, World War II novels of heroism, and cleaning…
heide
June 24, 2024
Reflections

Windows

I take some things for granted, such as my husband, that I can buy groceries other than what’s on sale, and that my hair is coming in silver rather than falling out. I also take for granted windows. Have you ever been in a windowless room? It’s claustrophobic, stuffy, stultifying. Without windows, we cannot look out. Without windows we cannot see in. Windows offer more than a view or a…
heide
March 19, 2024
Wondering

Compound Love

I’ve been doing something that irks me—tax prep. It’s not because I hate paying taxes (nor do I love it), it’s the number crunching, and categorizing, and seeing in black-and-white or red how much we spend at coffee shops. It’s just not my cup of tea—and it’s obvious that I drink a lot of tea, or I wouldn’t have such a big number after the budget category of coffee shops!…
heide
February 8, 2024
LifestyleReflections

Waxing Retro

It’s a new year, but it’s already starting to feel old. It goes so fast! Not just time, but life. All those precious moments. Poof! Life isn’t just the name of a breakfast cereal, or a defunct, but very popular magazine. It’s what we do…until we don’t. And I want to squeeze every drop out of it, but those opportunistic specters—anxiety and depression, have a way of floating into the…
heide
January 19, 2024
Wondering

Peppermint Pockets

It’s that time of year when I cry, more than usual, over little things—Bing Crosby warbling White Christmas, the death of a chickadee snatched by a hawk at the birdbath, and, of course, the courteous driver who let me have the last parking spot at Costco. My weepiness isn’t new, but somehow, this year my tears are less superficial. They’re erupting from the heart, most often followed by recollections of…
heide
December 22, 2023
LifestyleReflections

Fall-ing for Love

When I was eight, I was playing in the attic of our haunted farmhouse in rural Indiana. It was a blistering, summer morning, and I’d become bored with picking mulberries, sweeping the chicken coop, and pedaling our blue, hand-me-down bicycle in circles. I chose to rummage in the attic where I didn’t escape the heat, but I had the prospect of finding treasures—Grandma’s tarnished tea service or an embarrassing school…
heide
October 14, 2023
Wandering

The Not So Evil Eye

For much of my life I’ve been a wanderer, traveling to places remote and different from what I know. I get the good kind of shivers when I encounter something foreign and exotic. Something that challenges the way I think or maybe just my taste buds. Most recently, a trip to the Middle East found me roaming in and around ancient marble and sandstone cities, modern utopias built on oil…
heide
April 21, 2023
Reflections

Father Christmas

Christmas 1989, Left to Right, Top to Bottom: My dad (Bernie), Aunt Bernadine, Me, Grandma Eva After a life-altering trip to the Middle East, a jet-lagged Thanksgiving, and ringing in the holidays with the removal of kidney stones, my thoughts were a muddled hodgepodge of gratitude and self-pity. I just couldn’t get into the spirit of the season and worse, I had nothing to say. Then I received a letter…
heide
December 23, 2022
Lifestyle

Pumpkin Spice

Pumpkins are super in vogue…at least this is true beginning in September and lasting through Thanksgiving. Pumpkin spice lattes, cream cheese pumpkin muffins, pumpkin face masks, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin patches, and pumpkin pies. Pumpkins festoon shop windows and porch rails, and even the aisles of the local home improvement store competing only with the (gulp) Christmas trees. And pumpkins aren’t just orange anymore. They come in shades of blue,…
heide
October 26, 2022
Lifestyle

My Salad Bowl Teacher

I think everyone has at least one favorite thing. The item, that if threatened by fire or flood, would make into the car after family and pets, computers, passports, and photos. Maybe it’s a favorite uncle’s bamboo fly rod, the first pair of real gold earrings you could afford on your own, or Mom’s flo blue cookie jar. For me, it’s tough to say as I am a sentimental collector,…
heide
October 6, 2022