As the leaves fall, the trees become bare, and a few apples hang stubbornly on my apple tree; ebony crows sit watchful on the fence row. I, too, have hung stubbornly to the tree, resisting change. In the last few evening hours before Daylight Savings…

That fine morning, I was in a place in my emotional life where so much had happened in six months that I stared at this scene as if I was watching it from far above, like God’s perch. While this detachment has served me over a lifetime of karmic meteors, I’ve been…

My friends gave me a T-shirt with “Page County Don’t Back Down” emblazoned across the chest after I stood up to five people threatening to shoot us. We had decided to go for a hike one beautiful Autumn Day and as we parked at the trailhead in the George…

I can’t change a tire, so when I woke up one morning with one around my waist, I knew I was in big trouble. “What the hell?” I thought as I tried to button my jeans, and in doing so, created a muffin top. This was not here yesterday; I swear. As I looked in the mirror, it seemed I had gone…

24 tons of chicken shit. That was my Valentine’s Day present in 2024. This was much better than a bag of chocolate covered M&Ms that a man, who wanted to marry me and boasted about his net worth, gave me after two years of dating…

Like many women, I am a fixer, which also seems to go hand in hand with being a (reformed) control freak. If I even think there will be a difficulty with something or someone, my brain immediately goes into high gear coming up with numerous…

Reading, by its very nature, is a charming experience. Who hasn’t been carried off to a distant land or found solace in books? All humans are hard-wired for stories, and it is in the realm of magical realism that stories blend the ordinary with the mystical…

As a gentle but constant snow falls, the pure clean white provides contrast to pearl, slate, gunmetal grey and silver of winter. The sky, trees, Blue Ridge mountains, and even my farm house have faded into waxen shades. Winter has striped color…

I tossed my walker over the cliff the other day (figuratively); I was raising my angry fist at my advancing years and infirmities, much like Dylan Thomas wrote in his famous poem. Acceptance of this has been a battle as I deal with body part replacements…

When my daughter walks in the door, Christmas walks in with her. Like Fezziwig in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, she makes Christmas a jubilant holiday for all with her unbridled joy. Also, having spent months buying presents so wonderful, heartfelt and personal, she has made my sons cry and left me in awe. Fueled […]