Ever since the book So Long as It’s Wild: Standing Strong After My Famous Walk Across America (2023)by Barbara Jenkins was announced, I’ve been highly anticipating reading it. A few years ago, I read (and loved) To Shake the Sleeping Self, written by one of her sons, Jedidiah Jenkins. From following both Jedidiah and Barbara…
Tag: author
Buy the Book
A few years ago, I came across Bookshop.org. This online book retailer sources its stock from local bookstores, some of which don’t have the means to maintain their own online storefronts or might not have the ubiquitous reach that mega retailers have. Beyond the benevolent idea that my shopping would benefit small-to-medium sized businesses, I…
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
I love an end of the year reflection post. I also love a song lyric that feels so relevant to a moment in time it’s as if the lyricist wrote it just for me (thank you Jack Johnson, circa 2005). So, here I am at the end of 2024—sitting, waiting, wishing only good things for…
Book Review: Wintering
In mid-November, a friend of mine randomly said, “I have a book I think you’d like.” If you’ve ever been the recipient of that kind of statement, you may understand the slight bristling that I initially experienced. How does she know what kind of book I like to read? I thought, while also gamely writing…
Garden Party
Hosting is a skill that I feel I have tried to cultivate over the years after observing the masterful care that others have demonstrated in welcoming me to their spaces. To host someone well doesn’t mean that you meet every condition that Miss Manners expounded upon. A full set of silverware isn’t necessary, nor is…
Bright
The brightness of a grey winter sky is blinding.I can hardly manage a glance out of the window—not sure I want to anyway.The bleak greyness spreads its somber shadowson the brown grass and tangled yard clippingsI failed to discard at the end of summer. Yet for all the neutral colors of a seasonin its twilight,there’s…
Seasons: Rest
The fragment of weak light just barely revealsa moment of hope buried within me—tucked away ‘til spring pushes forth the earth.Bits of green disrupt the barren ground, forbeneath the surface, growth was happening.We just couldn’t see what we alreadyknew to be true: the best is yet to come. A season of slumber must cover the…
An earthly cry
A lament to the flowers that didn’t bloom: I planted some seeds that didn’t germinate.Nothing materialized at all.The soil seemed good enough,the conditions ideal.But, there were no light green tendrilsstretching toward the sun.Just disappointment. Fatigue. Worry. Scorn.A bitter earth. I planted more seeds,initially they were strong.But they also failed miserably.From delicate new budsto a shriveled…
L.M.Beatty 