"With all the partisan bitching and divisive news cycles, reading memoir helps me feel like I'm part of something more significant."
Etched in Stone
No thanks to me and the dozen or so changes I made the last five months, my very patient headstone maker will finally set my late husband’s headstone this morning. Made of Jasper quartzite, which is native to the area of Minnesota where we used to live, I love the sharp edges and the uneven … Continue reading Etched in Stone
Oklahoma! practice, 1977
This is the only audio I have of Bruce. A BIG thank you to the late Bob Jones, Jasper High School choir director and a dear friend of Bruce's, for sending this to Carlene in 2000. If you have any audio or video of Bruce that you can share, please let me know. You can … Continue reading Oklahoma! practice, 1977
A Lesson in Rhythm
"I will get up and write this down so I don’t forget this lesson, but I know I will forget. I always do. And some other cricket will come along and piss me off and I'll start the lesson all over again."
Damn (beautiful) Bear
Damn Bear is like a teenager who scored a keg. “Party!” I imagine he called out to his forest friends as he dragged the fifty-pound container off our porch and into the yard.
Grief Research
Having spent the better part of two years writing a memoir about how I learned (and am still learning) to live with grief, I can say for certain that grief isn’t exclusively linked to death.
To Live Deeply, You Need to Be a Cardinal
"It’s safer to be a grackle, yes, but if I truly want to live in the fullness of all that life throws at me, I know I need to be a cardinal."
Farsighted
“Maybe surrounding yourself with grief, sadness, and bittersweet memories all day every day is taking a toll?”
Goodbye, Dad
I read the letters, but not the ramblings because, you know, I'd have plenty of time before our next Zoom call to do that. Then he up and died, just like that, on Monday night.
Headstone(d) (and looking for advice)
When I was nineteen and he was twenty four and we had a several-thousand-dollar hospital bill to pay because we’d just had a baby, he died. After paying thousands of dollars for an expensive casket because my mother-in-law didn’t want her son’s body eaten by bugs, ever (perfectly preserved forever, which isn’t how nature works), … Continue reading Headstone(d) (and looking for advice)
