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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Is it a watercolor, or an oil? The color, even, deep, everywhere. It makes you pick your head up, hold it high and turn round and round filling your self with the best blue you’ve ever seen. It is an optical illusion It can be seen for miles in the open air. If you stare at it, you can’t tell [...]
The Carlisle house. The upstairs bathroom, the kid’s bathroom, was at the top of the stairs and in the middle of the hall. A bathtub with showering capabilities and a toilet were provided on the opposite side of the double sinks and counter. I experienced life’s measurements in the bathroom. The muddy blue double sinks were separated by a light [...]
I heard the call. It wasn’t a whisper or a delicate voice or loud words urging me to transcribe thoughts to paper where I hoped to see ideas born into stories. The call went off like an alarm, telling me it was time to awaken my spirit. I received my calling when I was fifteen, accompanied by a pink hardcover [...]
My tree attraction wasn’t for just any tree. It was a particular birch tree I had grown to know in my early years – developing a kinship with its youth – planted on the same plot as I. Its delicate arms played in uncomplicated innocence, inviting me to circle around it. The poet Robert Frost wrote, “Birches” where, “I like [...]
I’m no longer fifty. I was no longer fifty about eighteen days ago.At the end of my fortieth decade, I finally felt at peace in my own skin and proud at earning a perspective of seeing my world as half full, not half empty.But who was I kidding? I used to say after turning the half century, I would count [...]
When the above pictured house was built (1965) there was just enough foliage planted to round out the squareness in corners and soften and fill an otherwise stark landscape. I was only 3 then, my brother, Tim, 6. I wondered if that was Tim standing in the den window just to the left of the garage. It does look like [...]
In a recent column by Barbara Brotman in the Chicago Tribune she told her readers to not underestimate the power of doing nothing. I agree. But with an additional twist.I know you are probably asking how could anyone possibly do nothing. There's always something. And with the excess of mobile devices in hands, its use should take up any floating [...]