Is He Dead or Alive?

Snow is brilliant. It magnifies animal tracks. Glancing out the front window after two inches of snowfall, I saw numerous tracks. I investigated a hole under the edge of our porch similar to one we had two years ago. Time again to set the trap! What will we find this time? Should I bait with meats to attract possums, or vegetables for rabbits? I decided on sardines in oil – more smell. Evening. “What’s the dog barking about?” Dan yelled down from his upstairs office. “Crystal wants to go outside?” I answered, assuming I knew her desire. I let her out. Wait – she’s running around sniffing and listening.  What’s up with her? First a lot of barking, which is unusual, now her only interest is in going to the front of the house. I’m confused....

Read More

Reconnecting

Made a connection last week with a friend, via her daughter, over Facebook. Call it the proverbial Blast from the Past. One phone call later and we were friends all over again. We were sharing stories of our current lives, as well as remembrances from over 30 years ago. I am reminded of a close friend from my fourth/fifth/and sixth grade who I would love to reconnect with today. Yet I do not know where to start. Maybe I never will. But with the advent of social networking on the computer and the World Wide Web – who knows. Anything is possible. Connections with people in my life are important. As I watch news videos of trouble throughout the world, earthquakes, hurricanes, hazardous waste spills—people connections seem even more important to me. Their stuff...

Read More

Listening to Love

After hours of working, I sat back in my chair and sighed. Tired, but pleased, I was close to finishing. Turning around in my chair I saw my dog, in her ‘den’. She had adopted the small space, where feet normally fit, under my desk. With sad eyes she gazed up at me hoping for a petting, but expecting me to ignore her as I had for the last two hours. Her adoration was compelling, and I reached down to caress her face, telling her she was special and loved. Her tail began to thump loudly against the wood. Listening to her love for me, expressed by her tail, I was reminded of the blessing God gave me when Crystal came into my life. She brightened my day, and my caress brightened hers. I was Listening to her Love.

Read More

Prejudice Unveiled in – A Buffalo in the House – by Rosen

Prejudice Unveiled in – A Buffalo in the House – by Rosen

“The civilization of the Indian is impossible while the buffalo remains upon the plains….I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from our western prairies….” Columbus Delano, US Secretary of the Interior, under President Ulysses S. Grant, from his 1883 Annual Report. Veryl Goodnight and her husband Roger, in the year 2000, began raising a bull buffalo calf they named Charlie, from a few days of age to his untimely death at age three. Rosen, in his book A Buffalo in the House, captures Charlie’s story as well as the current plight of the plains buffalo. Once a majestic sight, herds of buffalo roaming the great American plains are gone. Few buffalo remain, most living in Yellowstone National Park, where there is not always...

Read More

Puzzle Me & Puzzle You

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 70 PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3, Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17. B3 PR0UD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N R34D 7H15 🙂 … I received the above in my Facebook feed a few days ago. I also received it, around the same time, from a friend in an email. I’m not sure what message they are trying to give. Was it a test to see if I was intelligent? Is it about them? Could they read it and thus they were bragging?  Or was it a fun curiosity to occupy my time? What does reading it prove? Are we brighter than the next person if we meet this challenge and they don’t? Is reading it a translatable skill or is it...

Read More