What we want, what we need
It was in the middle of a recent writers workshop that a line from a Rolling Stones song popped into my mind. The line, and the song, is “You can’t always get what you want.” This happened as the workshop leader was talking about some of the nuts and bolts of writing a novel. While describing the development of character and plot, he said that the main character – and there should almost always be just one main character – [...]
When Sour is Sweet
There were a few days in a row last week when I didn’t have any meetings or appointments, which is a fairly rare occurrence. Plus, we had several workers coming to the house to do repairs or give us service estimates, so we needed to stay close to home. It seemed like the perfect time to bake some sourdough bread. Although bread-baking – especially sourdough – got really popular during the COVID lockdown in 2020, I didn’t get into it [...]
Happy Anniversaries
I can still remember my grandma and grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary. A special blessing at Mass was followed by a big reception in the church hall, which was filled with family, friends, and neighbors. I remember the yellow dress I wore that day, and the lovely dress, corsage, and smile my grandma wore. But that may be as much from photos as from memory. My mom died at age 42, long before she and my dad would have had a [...]
If you can stomach this…
I had a blog post written and almost ready to go last week. But before I could polish and post it, I had to take a slight detour, via ambulance, ending up in the hospital with internal bleeding caused by several small ulcers I didn’t know I had. After a few scary and painful days in the hospital, I’m home now, recovering and starting to feel like myself again. As always, after something bad happens in my life, I try [...]
Easter Memories
I had a doctor’s appointment Friday afternoon, and it was starting to rain just as I was leaving the doctor’s office. I looked at the time as I got in my car. It was a little after 2:00. This immediately took me back to when I was young, and we spent a fair amount of time in church during the Easter Triduum – the period of time between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday. The hours between noon and 3 o’clock [...]
Madness Marches On
I always used to associate March Madness with a March Blizzard. The two always seemed to go together when we lived in Minnesota, and although the snowstorm was severe, we never worried about it too much, because Spring was around the corner, and we knew the snow wouldn’t last too long. But that was then, this is now. Snowstorms haven’t been an issue for us in the six years we’ve been living in Georgia. So I’m getting used to March [...]