This story originally ran in 2015, but I’ve had some requests to re-run it in time for the holidays….So enjoy! My face may be unfamiliar; but you know my type. You’ve seen me at the farmers’ market — the woman with crows’ feet and calloused hands, wearing hand-me-down sweaters, thrift store jeans, and barn boots. […]
Shut up and listen.
“So…If he was a she last time I saw him…or her?… And I’m telling a story about that time….Do I call him her, or him?” “I have no idea.” We are sitting in the forest behind the house, leaning back against our favorite boulder, staring up at the blue sky through the branches and leaves. […]
Talking Dogs
“Please. I would like to play catch-peanut.” Kit, our border collie-blue healer cross, stares intently at Ula as she flops down on the couch on the screen porch. Her pointed ears radar themselves at my daughter, as though she can summon special powers through them. “It’s a very excellent game, Ula. I really enjoy playing […]
Managing Expectations
The scrambles can all go together in one pan. The sunny sides need to cook separately. I have enough space on the cooktop to manage three orders of home fries; sausage and pancakes on the griddle. That leaves one order of over-medium, two over-easies, the oatmeal, and three more orders of home fries plus the […]
Belly Buttons & Fairies
“Sooo…..Did your innie become an outie?” Kate’s rocking the maternity farm overalls these days. She’s working on the cafe computer when I come in to start preparing food for the weekend. “Hell yeah!” “It goes back in, right?” I lift my shirt and show her my post-maternity paunch. “Sort of. It just kind of droops […]
Do What You Want.
Shannon Hayes, 40, doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do. I’m going through a box of newspaper clippings when I find this. It’s the opening line to a story about the health benefits of simple living in the Nov 5, 2014 edition of US News & World Report. I’m wondering if they fact-checked that […]
Gift or Affliction?
Sometimes I think it’s an affliction — This inability to listen to bullfrogs, watch fireflies, discern the call of a Sapsucker from a Pileated, to listen to my mother tell a story, to share my dad’s worries, to watch my children play, to ponder the world with Bob— Without trying to fit the pieces together […]
Brain Drain
I wonder if they have fireflies in Ireland. Supper’s long finished, and I’ve slipped out to the screen porch to catch a glimpse of the display. From the kitchen sink Bob bemoans that the Kyrgyz exchange students who flew back home two days’ prior missed the show. Erin Lavigne is missing it, too. Erin’s […]
Doing well. (?).
“Shannon, please, I would like to have a conversation with you.” Nazgul calls to me from farther back on the path, then hastens to catch up, her slip-on shoes sliding on the slick trail. The airlines have lost her luggage, and this is the 10th day she has had to make do with insufficient clothing […]
An Inconvenient Soup
He taps his credit card on the counter as he scans over the charges on the screen I’ve presented him. He gives a little nod at each price. Then I see him look down at the pint of split pea soup in his hand and furrow his brow before looking back at the screen. The […]
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