This is My Last Rodeo; Bodacious

|

When is courage just stupidity? The streets around the rodeo grounds were blocked off, and vendors sold Western gear, boots, hats, bandanas, and kids’ souvenirs. The stands closest to the grounds sold food — a variety of beef, beer, and … Read More

My Sleeping Beauty Envy Has Morphed

|

I want a really deep sleep I envy Sleeping Beauty for that long, deep sleep. I don’t care about the handsome prince anymore — a really good-looking man who acts as if he’s just ridden up on a white charger … Read More

Love and the Writing Life: Ms. Merriwether

|

Ms. Merriwether’s Advice to Gentle Reader. Dear Ms. Merriwether, I have always lusted after a professor; not a particular one, just a generic one in a tweed jacket with leather patches on the sleeves. That life seems very romantic — … Read More

Ms. Merriwether Answers Questions on Writing, Life

|

Considering the Bar, Low or High. Dear Ms. Merriwether, I have enjoyed writing on the internet, but it has always been my dream to be a Published Author, which means printing a novel or anthology in book form. Preferably, The … Read More

When Do We Age/Edge into Disability?

|

Denying when we need help is not helping I wear hearing aids. Am I disabled? I was disabled when I had foot surgery and my foot was in a cast for 8 weeks. I used a knee scooter and had … Read More

Oregon Outback, Creativity and Science

|

The intersection of time and space in the Playa Photo by Jake Weirick on Unsplash I drove to eastern Oregon through hours of sage bush, despairing at my decision to attend a writer’s workshop in this godforsaken place. Rifts of … Read More

Mourning Doves and Life Lessons

|

Freighted Meaning and Hunting Targets A pair of mourning doves eat the seeds underneath my feeder. Although I rotate the bird feeder on a pole, the squirrels’ acrobatics get the seeds to fall. It serves them, but also the birds who … Read More

True Believers and Misled Passion

|

Persistence and incrementalism get us further in life and work “I believe counts, right now, for more than “the evidence shows…” Belief based on emotion is dangerous. We need to be humble. The world can make us so. Passion is … Read More

Lavender Festivals, Oregon

|

The scent and taste wafting in the air. My favorite lavender festival was last weekend, and a friend and I made our annual trek to the fields and hills of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Pictures of the mounded purple … Read More

The Roiling of the Supreme Court — Looking Back and Forward

|

Impeach Chief Justice Earl Warren Earl Warren is now regarded as one of the great Supreme Court leaders of the twentieth century. He was not a shrewd constitutional lawyer, but he was a politician who could straddle both sides of … Read More

1 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 20