Dottie Doodles loves her Noodles
Dottie-3 mos. Thursday is noodle night. And Dottie knows this. Dottie, aka Tooker’s Girl Lightning, her registered name with the AKC, is a purebred beagle. She is an old gal now, but does not let her age defy her registered name as she circumnavigates the fenced yard’s perimeters with bursts of flash speed like lightning from skies above. At home, she is known as Dottie Doodles where she sprawls on the couch stretching from black nose to white tail with one eye slightly open, more like a slit, [...]
On being human
It is only on a winter's day today where the shades of white, grey and black blend together to create a landscape void of color, of life of warmth that I retreat to thoughts of a different season . . . I inhale the warm summer air and my eyes meet the sun’s glow just above the horizon. This is my invitation to start my day. Dressed in running clothes, my tights and long sleeved shirt cling to my body inducing and overall warmth. Pray, connect and learn; it’s simple [...]
The Noise in Silence
Distractions in my head keep time with my travels of foot. Like any good shadow, it clings to my thoughts when I am alone or mingling with others, in my work room or in a public arena.My fidgeting brain tracks sensory stimulation of movement, sound and smell like any great horned owl zeros in on a tiny mouse or a busy beagle to a rabbit. I draw a sight map with plotted locations of the evolving noise. The screaming, crying and stampeding of children in a park are noise. The [...]
What Used to Be
“The Deerfield Commons, it used to be over there, that whole block, with Waukegan and Deerfield roads fencing it in,” I muttered with a heavy sigh looking west as I drove north on Waukegan Road. I say it every time I drive into Deerfield, where I grew up, and pass that intersection. I am flooded with memories and pictures of what used to be. “This was the center of town,” I said as if to will the scenario as I remembered it back where it belonged. I see clearly, on [...]
What’s in a Surname, anyway?
Roots seek their path through the ground of where they are nestled, marking generations of their families, expanding with the seasons and taking their time over the decades. They wander blindly but knowingly in search of water and sustenance, robbing the earth’s soil of her nutrients with an undeniable quest for growth. I was born a Chadwick, the DNA evident through my green eyes, light brown hair with a cowlicked plume of honey streaks just above my right eye. There’s a chance I will discover my roots I’ve trampled on [...]
A Tale of Anger
There once was a man who carried a chip. The chip weighed him down so much so that it made him drag his feet. He became tired. The chip affected him so much that his tongue became swollen and he could not speak to be understood .The chip could not be broken. It became a part of him; he could never lose it. And it grew with his age. It got bigger and soon it overtook him, becoming its own entity, controlling his life. The chip made his decisions, created [...]
Sensing
in the moment, senses tapped, breathing deep and defined, discharging the creative flow a whirlwind blow of air pushes out the furnace through portals in my walls replacing a chill about me with dry warmth. the roof cracks and splinters from the cooling of heated air aloft in the attic. the circa 1920 wooden school clock propped on the foyer wall keeps a rhythm of minutes with syncopated tocks keep time, echoing throughout the house. zack snores with each inhale alive deep in his compact beagle body. a glance outside [...]
From “Under the Birch Tree”
The blueprints tell me the once new house would never be as it was in 1964. The thin white lines drafted on blueprint are no longer virginal. The floors have been released of their coverings and footprints are disintegrated into the now thin air. The furniture has been relocated out of the house to new rooms and inhabitants are sitting elsewhere. I tried to discover a heritage, should there be one, from letters or notes or even scraps of paper. I knew of only one grandmother, my mom’s mother. My [...]