Although this is a Silent Sunday post, I’d like to do something fun with the next few days. Through the end of the year, I will post 10-15 of my favorite photos. Each day, vote on the one you like best for that day’s group in the comments. Just tell me the photo that speaks…
self reflection
Slice of Life: The Gift of Friendship
Yesterday, I had coffee with a friend. This is something I do with some regularity with a few close friends. But, yesterday was different. I had not seen this friend in several years. This person is one of those people with whom I am very fortunate to be able to pick right up where we…
Field Trips: Navigating our World
Last Thursday I was lucky enough to go on a field trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul with my son’s art class. The high school anatomy class students were also in tow. For about 45 kids, mostly in grades 11-12, there were three teachers and two parent chaperones. I had not…
On Being a Good Listener
I do not know if I should be ashamed to admit that I have to work at being a good listener or not. Perhaps, it is admirable that I know I have to work at this trait, so I do. In any case, I think we can all use a reminder of what it takes…
Water Woes
Over the last few months, I have given water a great deal of thought. Last spring, our well ran dry. We had no water. A plumber was contacted and we had a new well drilled. It took quite a long time and many additional feet of depth to access the water table. The reason the…
December Walls When Decking the Halls
Yesterday, I just didn’t feel good. I had an early morning dental appointment for a cleaning to which I went with a headache. Despite some ibuprofen, the headache persisted for most of the day. By evening, I felt like I had not gotten anything done. Of course, this wasn’t true. I had actually done a…
Why Pursue Professional Certifications
When I first started to practice nursing, about 35 years ago, some people believed the old adage: “a nurse is a nurse.” Institutions, such as the one for which I worked at the time, implemented cross-training of the nursing staff so we could “float” to one unit or another and cover for short-staffing in a…
Poetry Friday: Insomnia & Boundaries
Introduction to Poetry Friday for November 15th, 2019. Usually, my poems do not rhyme. I am very comfortable with that and often surprise the school children I’ve worked with on poetry when I tell them that poetry does not have to rhyme. But, the other night, while lying in bed, wide awake for two hours,…
A Walk in the Northwoods
On Saturday we were at our cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and took a walk with our dog. We visited the small lake adjacent to ours – Stone Lake. The water was not yet frozen over. We could tell this because it looked like someone tried to ice fish and found it too slushy…
Poetry Friday: Sounds and Song
Since it is poetry Friday I started to think about what I was going to write about today. I had children’s poetry books I got out of the library last week and could review one of those. I did really liked “The Free and the Brave: A Collection of poems about the United States” (2004). The…










