Back in 2011, I wrote about my mother, Mi Madre, My Queen and everything I wrote still holds true today, even more so. In the past decade, she has had two very bad falls resulting in surgeries and rehab and yet, she powered through with a determination and intensity that inspired not just her children … Continue reading My Mother
Mi Familia
Privilege, Racial Equity & Family
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. My original plan was to share my story of life during those early days of the pandemic, but I quickly realized my privilege and once I did, my story was no longer important. I work for a foundation that invests money and resources into organizations and coalitions … Continue reading Privilege, Racial Equity & Family
Gratitude and Joy
Wednesday afternoon as the familiar smell of sweet potato pies filled our home, I took a moment to think about the year and was filled with an immense sense of gratitude. I try to always take a moment each day and be grateful, be it for a great work day, the weather, my family – even such small things as a beautiful sunset, the sighting of deer on my way home, a great book, a great sentence, an unexpected call from a friend.
Cooking for Comfort
I’m not talking a quick and easy throw-together meal, but a meal requiring time spent with a recipe I’ve possibly altered more than once and will continue to do so far into the future (there’s always a rewrite) or something new. The prep and pace should be savored just as the-end-result meal. Leisurely, slow-paced, sips-of-wine-in-between-stirs cooking.
More than Memories – a life in photos
My dad loves to take photos. From slides to 8mm, our family history is well-documented. Two or three handmade wooden cases contain rubber banded packets of slides catalogued by number, each one corresponding with the content list handwritten on the inside of the lid: #28- Christmas 1966, #48- The Farm 1974. The reels of movie … Continue reading More than Memories – a life in photos
Lesson Planning Became a Lesson Planned for Me
We live and we continue to learn moment by moment, day by day, and choice by choice. These lessons we learn are not lost, not futile, if we truly learn from them by gaining experience, recognizing who we are, who we are not, and who we can be and grow. At the end of the … Continue reading Lesson Planning Became a Lesson Planned for Me
My List of Grateful
This morning, while drinking coffee and bemoaning the coverage of the Thanksgiving Day parade (more floats, less guests!), I decided to fill one sheet of paper with what and whom I am most grateful. I could have filled more sheets, but since I need to getting prepping on that turkey, I limited myself to one. … Continue reading My List of Grateful
The Course of a Life
Each morning, as I sit for the light to change at 21st and Oliver, I cannot help but stare at what was once Braeburn Golf Course. Once a significant aspect of the campus of Wichita State University, orange construction cones now contain the high mounds and deep hollows of dirt, sparse trees, and the steel skeletons of what … Continue reading The Course of a Life
A Life Measured by the Soul- A Tribute to Jeffrey Lane Graber
The album was filled with glossy 4x6 photos. Photos of the red rose-bush tall against the wood fence; an upward shot of the aging basketball goal framed in Kansas blue sky, one single white cloud in the backdrop; a robin perched on the edge of the stone bird bath; a cardinal balancing among the branches … Continue reading A Life Measured by the Soul- A Tribute to Jeffrey Lane Graber
Final 40s- Onward and Ageward
On Valentine’s Day, I celebrated my 49th birthday. It was a wonderful day with a soup/sweets and wine tasting at Grace Hill Winery; a stop at an antique shop in Newton, Kansas; Boulevard Chocolate Ale at my favorite local bar, The Anchor; a purchase of thick cut pork chops and gouda cheese from another local … Continue reading Final 40s- Onward and Ageward
Mermaid of the Plains 