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The Surprise
The summer’s drought, like a merciless thief, stole life from three flats of marigolds enhancing the front of my home. Each dusky plant drew sorrow as I plucked it up, examined its withered roots, then...
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Christmas Cactus
It stood tall, wrapped with holiday paper and ribbons; inside was a Christmas cactus, its pink tubular blossoms contrasting with the glossy flat-shaped leaves called cladoles. This was in 2004, a gift...
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Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Have you ever been mesmerized by squirrels skittering across plank fences, by rushing streams along shady creek beds, by hearts of June roses, by aromas of honeysuckle vines wafted upon breezes, by...
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Gift of Dreams
Night-Teacher weaves snapshots of experience into veiled stories that uncovers warring powers inherent within family, church, society, exorcises madness, soothes quaking limbs, jolts awareness,...
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Peaches
Whenever we sound the depths of people, places, and things, we invariably find a significant story. This is true of peaches. Among summer’s fruits, peaches always evoke the “Ah!” response; their downy...
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Shriveled Souls
(Home care patients I’ve known.) Mildred, 83 years old, loner in dusty bungalow. From her heart spewed nastiness: “I put my daughter-in-law’s picture in the shit house where she belongs!” Each...
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Winterlight
Winterlight is like a calico stalking the bands of darkness. Winterlight is like a city pigeon hovering over cathedral spires. Winterlight is like a solitary cardinal preening atop a plank fence....
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Cottonwoods
Breezes gentle fluffy white seeds of cottonwoods looming above the creek bottom engorged by recent rains. Mounds feather the grassy sides of the trail and mask spent dandelions and trefoil clover. Each...
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September Blooming
Suddenly, frolicking breezes carry a disarming sweetness. I stop in my tracks, then move slowly toward the fragrance. What resembles a white lacy quilt has been tossed upon my neighbor’s tangled growth...
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A Spiritual Awakening
In mid-life some people become disillusioned in their hard-won achievements. Nothing seems to work and distractions only worsen the malaise. That was the experience of Edwin Steinmann, husband, father,...
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I Stir
I stir in my chair, let my pen fall to my lap. I listen. Can it be? Yes! A hymnody of chirps enlivens the early morning stillness still trapped in February’s bite. Outside my study window a mess of...
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We never know
We never know when the next quickening will occur—that moment of communion with Beauty that ravishes the senses, that tingles our humanness and enlarges our world. Such occurred last evening with the...
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Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Have you ever been mesmerized by a squirrel skittering across a plank fence, by winking stars on frigid nights, by rushing streams in shady creek beds, by cardinals’ chirrups in the morning sun? Such...
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Gift
For eight Februarys, a single gold crocus has pushed through the mulch in my flowerbed, preening its petals within the morning sun. Its blooming, in the same place, seems to proclaim, “I’m back! Take...
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Fireflies
It was dusk: cloud stacks slowly encroached upon fluid fields of peach and aquamarine washes, resembling the insides of summer’s richness. Stillness wafted upon southern breezes that felt like a...
View ArticleHeart-Quickenings
The trappings of Valentine’s Day are upon us: candy hearts stamped with love notes, arrangements of scarlet roses and Babies Breath, chocolate-covered strawberries, intimate candle-light suppers,...
View ArticleIt Happened Again
It happened again. No, not another school shooting—Something more profound, despite months of near-drought hardening the soil, intent upon imprisoning the emergence of all growth. There was a reprieve....
View ArticleA Song for the Heart
Seems to me that our hearts were fashioned to sing. Consider the harmonics of the spheres throughout the universe. Consider the strains of a spirited melody, whether in a concert hall or a sports venue...
View ArticleItzhak
“The only thing I can’t … teach is whether a musician can get through to his guts. They have to find that themselves, and some of them never do.” So says the seventy-two year-old-world-renowned...
View Article“Will You Be My Friend?”
“Will you be my friend?” asked Raphael Simi who was confined to the psychiatric hospital at Saint-Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux in Trosly, a southern suburb of Paris. Next to him stood Philippe Seux, both...
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