Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Succinctly Yours #193: Dangling…or Marry-onette

Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours! The idea of this meme is to use the photo as inspiration to simmer a story down to 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word this week was “hesitate.”




Glenda didn’t hesitate to carry as her bouquet the broom switch she used to keep Enrique in line. 80

Enrique didn’t hesitate to become entangled with Glenda and snag her as his bride. They both felt compelled by something from above. 111

During the elimination challenge of “Top Chef,” Glenda, knowing her position hung by a thread, didn’t hesitate to use broom straw as her secret ingredient. She won. 138


I met an old lady once, almost one hundred years old, and she told me, “There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who’s in charge?” Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief and suffering. ~Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Monday, November 24, 2014

Succinctly Yours #192: The Barnhoods

Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours! The idea of this meme is to use the photo as inspiration to peck away at a story until it’s under 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word this week was “rubber.”


Tomas campaigned to have the rubber turkey substituted for a real one as the Thanksgiving fowl of choice. Too bad everyone thought it was a gag.  118

It wasn’t safe once the turkey toughs moved in. They used rubbernecking as intimidation, and they strutted their colors all over the barnyard. They were truly fowl.  138



Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. ~Eckhart Tolle

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Succinctly Yours #191: Picture a Picture

Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours! The idea of this meme is to use the photo as inspiration to capture a story under 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word this week was “bedlam.”


They thought Ann couldn’t hold up the camera, but when bedlam ensued, she kept a cool head and a steady hand and captured the greatest footage Channel 14 had ever seen.  137

Ann chose to view the bedlam of the world through a lens. It may have made the picture sienna rather than rose-colored, but it allowed her to frame life as she pleased.  137



“Everyone must leave something behind….Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do…so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.” ~Granger, Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

Monday, November 10, 2014

Succinctly Yours #190: Fancily Framed

Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours, the game in which we are challenged to gaze upon a picture as inspiration for a diminutive story of 140 words or 140 characters or under. I wasn’t sure if that was a frame in the picture or not, but I’ve coincidentally been sorting through old picture frames this weekend, so I definitely have them on the brain. The bonus word this week was “gallon.”

Mama thought the new portrait frame was worth its fancy price. The opening was so small, it took five gallons off that ten-gallon hat Papa always insisted on wearing. 138

When Papa won an award, he was so proud that he paid for the expensive, ten-gallon frame in spite of the fact that the award itself was almost too pint sized to see.  134


The one common bond that the really successful people I’ve met have is they’re ridiculous dreamers.  I’m a ridiculous dreamer.  Continue to dream.  Don’t let the reality of the world diminish those dreams. ~Mike Tomlin

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Stop and Smile at the Roses

He was probably in his seventies when he moved into the house on the corner. I passed by every day, so I watched the way he dug into his south-facing front yard and planted roses—lots and lots of roses. He joined the garden club for a time and was the resident rose expert, shyly answering our questions.

He was quiet, but if you asked and listened, he’d tell. A WWII vet, he said. Casablanca. What a shock that had been to a boy like him, he once told me.

He was almost always out there, tending his roses. We both did the farmer-wave when I drove past. Those roses were pouty pinup beauties in every lipstick shade imaginable, kissing every season but the most cold. Every fall I’d watch to see how he gently tucked them in for winter. Every spring I watched to see how he coaxed them out again. They brightened so many drives for a good twenty years.

 I never once saw his wife, but he had one. When I heard she died, I sent him a sympathy note and mentioned in it how much I enjoyed his roses. I ran into him at the gas station shortly after that, and his voice broke when he thanked me.

He never slowed down and he never seemed to age. He only seemed to shrink, as if age had to diminish him that way because he simply refused to weaken.

Then one day I saw some slow-moving people in his yard. Younger people. Funny how you can see grief in a person’s movements from half a block away. I knew then that it was too late and I’d already missed the funeral. They dug up the roses and left only lawn where the For Sale sign went. It broke my heart. Now it’s a normal house again. No—not normal. To me it will always be missing something.

I still look for those roses. Of all the things that man accomplished in his long life, some were great gifts for me. He planted the ideas that it’s never too late to create bright spots in peoples’ lives, and we can do it in even the smallest ways.

Thank you, Mr. Donald Gemeinhart. You are most definitely missed.


He who dies with the least toys wins. Because the more you know, the less you need. ~Yvon Chouinard Patagonia 

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Succinctly Yours #189: Arguably Grim Reaping


Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours, the game in which we are challenged to use the picture to whack a story to pieces at 140 words or 140 characters or under. The bonus word this week was “alert.”




Many people are shocked to find out who the Grim Reaper really is—an outdoorsy gal who weaves baskets in her spare time, yet always remains alert for the next soul.   135


While Pauletta sang “Bringing in the Sheaves,” she found it hard to remain alert. All she could dream about was getting her hook into Antonio.   118
Death is the landlord and you’re just the tenant. ~Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul