June 26, 2022
Let The Adventure Begin! I am honored to be the candidate for The Minnesota House of Representative District 12A for the 2022 election.I appreciate the benefits […]
October 15, 2018
The hummingbird moth arrives on our door. He stays–for days–as if a sentinel. I come to depend on his presence. A yellow bird dances in flight with a butterfly until two become one. A blonde fox leaps through the tall grass focused on her pressing schedule.
October 14, 2018
The Journey Home What is it about the land of western Minnesota? It is so flat and expansive, painfully authentic, and heartbreakingly beautiful. A long time […]
October 12, 2018
My sister and I are sitting with our mother in her hospice room. She lies in bed dressed in a hospital gown that ties at the back. The bed is upright so that she can visit with us. It is a hot, humid Minnesota day that arrives with a televised warning. I hold my mother’s hand during idle chat that amounts to nothing. Periodically, I lift a straw to her mouth so that she can have a sip of coffee. We are simply passing the time together, knowing that it’s limited.
October 12, 2018
I’m here I’ve arrived in rural Minnesota a small town where The Dairy Queen is the threshold guardian along Highway 75. I admit, when all the world seems too much for me I seek refuge with her in a vanilla swirl dipped in nut crunch. My camper rocks back and forth in the wind and sometimes squeaks like a mattress in a cheap motel. I’m sure this will keep the neighbors wondering about the woman from California in the Gypsy Caravan.
October 11, 2018
I never would have signed up for this. Not that I’m against it, it’s just so far out of my range of experience. At the end of August, my neighbor called: “Edie, is there any chance you would be willing to host a foreign exchange student? There are six students hoping to come to America; they need a placement in the next five hours.” Given five months, I would’ve had a laundry list, alphabetical, of all my reasons to decline. I told her I would think about it. This was my way of having a bit more time to compose a graceful “no.” When I hung up the phone, I really had to ask myself: what are my reasons? My former husband and I didn’t have children. We were busy with our professional lives. As the years went by, it simply ceased to be a topic of our conversation. When our twenty-year marriage ended, we were both silently grateful we’d never become parents.
October 11, 2018
Fresh air. That’s what it comes down to. My mother dwells on the threshold between life and death. I enter her room she lifts her bone-thin arm and tired finger. She points to the window, “Let’s have some fresh air, shall we?” At another time she’d say, “Let’s have a cup of tea go out for ice cream or go for a swim.” Now: “Let’s have some fresh air.”
October 10, 2018
I met two feral kittens at death’s door. So ill they could barely stand. Eyes filled with infection lungs rattling. Now a year old they follow me through the rooms of the house as if I am their sun. As if our home is their earth. They circle around me hoping to bask in my warmth.
October 4, 2018
I told Larry I fly-fish. I’ve fly-fished most of the Western United States. I have my favorite spots. Well… all of them, really. There is the input at Emigrant by Chico Hot Springs in Montana. Floating the Yellowstone is heaven. There’s a good fly shop in Big Sky. Sisters, Oregon is lovely. How about Hailey, Idaho? Almost lost my shoes in the mud at Silver Creek. Nearly lost my rod too.