Tales from the Trail
A Great Deal Of Good
Two Septembers ago my family spent a few weeks in South Dakota. It wasn't a vacation; it was a working trip. My husband tucked us away in the hills and commuted every morning into Rapid City. The kids and I did schoolwork and read and whiled away the remains of the...
A Little Thing
The littlest things make a difference, little things such as bits of scarlet in a tangle of brown on a winter's day. It's often true, what Blaise Pascal wrote: A little thing comforts us because a little thing afflicts us. A little thing can make all the difference....
Roads in Transition, Part 2
On December 12 the National Park Service posted a news release to inform the public that Yellowstone's interior roads would open on December 15, just as predicted. Yellowstone's fall and winter travelers knew when the road crews would start to let the snow build, when...
Room, Or No?
The year I got married, my husband’s mom told me she’d read that the Christmas season brings thirty-nine additional items to a woman’s already overflowing to-do list. At the time I thought the number seemed a wee bit overstated but with age and experience, I've...
Roads in Transition
The sun dawned in the steely sky and peeked through trees veiled by the falling snow. It had begun the night before and lingered, fine and heavy, through the day. “It’s slick,” my son told me when he returned from his mid-day Calc class. I must have looked concerned...
Gifts
Fall is days from turning in its papers for the year but between the early sticking snows and arctic blast I nearly missed it. And not only its existence--I almost missed its gifts. Fall is my favorite season but it just didn't look like its typical self this year....
Anchor
Once in a while, we encounter the remains of a colossal tree on the trail. Sometimes we find an immense trunk laying on the ground rather than stretched to the sky. Usually, though, it's a remnant of a root system tipped into the air that gets our attention. We always...
Before It Blows Away
The screen door crashed and muted footfalls raced across the carpet. “Come outside and look at the sky before it blows away!” called my littlest girl. “Before what blows away?” “The sky, it’s beautiful! But the clouds are moving really fast. I’m afraid you’ll miss...
For When It Rains On Your Parade
A few Saturdays ago, I woke to thunder and began to pray that it wouldn't rain. Seconds later, I realized that it was 6:30 a.m., the time when my post The Best Thing One Can Do was scheduled to land in inboxes, mine included. I wasn't following Longfellow's advice...
Rest Area Closed
Two years ago my family, parents, brother and sister-in-law, nephew and niece, along with the ones who live in my house--the whole tribe—made the drive to our current summer gathering place: Campfire Bay in Minnesota. That was the year that the Minnesota government...
The Road Ahead: October
My oldest childrenwere six and three when Jonah—A Veggie Tales Movie came out. When we went to see it, they hopped down the street toward the theater with glee. All their favorites were on the big screen: Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, Junior Asparagus, and...
The Intruder
A low rumble of a growl, that’s how it started. Our first camping trip found us buried further down a country road than I had ever traveled, stuck on one of those rural grassy drives between dusty gravel and green pasture. The little red Plymouth Sundance that I...
What’s a Little Rain?
Dad and I went to Yellowstone about a year ago—just the two of us, to the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, for a nature writing class—and we did some hiking and camping along the way. Most of the time, the end-of-August days delighted us with warm sun and cool air, but the...
On Trials Shared
Gary Smalley, founder of the Smalley Relationship Center, says that the secret to a “close-knit relationship is shared experiences that turn into shared trials." He mentions camping as one source for shared trials and a potential relationship-building activity. Makes...
The Road Ahead: September
One Sunday I walked out of church into the late morning sun and noticed a friend's sweet daughter prancing around near the street. She skipped right over to me when I called to her. I got down on one knee so that we could see each other's faces and we talked about...
Warning Signs
Some summers my nephew and niece visit us. The kids picnic and put on puppet shows; they fish and swim and sleep outside and get bit up. They stay busy--all on their own--and they love it. One year, my daughter was recovering from a cracked elbow. She had a doctor’s...
Soundtrack of Summer
I planned to watch this year. Maybe it was lack of competition from central air units, but this summer's been all about sound. Here's a baker's dozen of my favorites: "Goin' out!" followed by the banging of a door Frogs. Oh, how I love their way of filling the air...
Silver Linings
I wrote this last winter but I couldn't bear to post one more piece about snow. Winter had been too long and too deep. Summer always brings a day, usually in August, when I step outdoors and know that I will again be ready for snow. This is not that day. This...
Together
At 7:30 on a drowsy vacation morning, our daughter burst breathlessly into our room: Our neighbor's boat was sinking. My family was spending the week at Campfire Bay Resort where for the last five Julys my parents gathered the whole tribe-- my brother and his wife and...
Introductions
Several years ago I heard a report which correlated time spent online with loneliness. That was back in the days when I used my computer only for word processing and the occasional email. Then, slowly, along came Google. Facebook. The fascinating and beautiful world...
The Single Seat
During the first months of the year, a friend and I directed a play together: Outlaws, Goldmines, and Whatnot. On performance day, I realized that our directing work was done. Oh, we had makeup to help with, questions to answer, and I gave what one of the boys called...
What Made Her Sparkle
My great-grandma was a woman of summer. She kept a garden and her table overflowed with its bounty. She picked berries for jam and to top ice cream. Once in a while, I helped her in the berry patch or the garden and it always shocked me when she showed up in pants....
In The Silence
Morning is quiet again. Sort of. The distant whine is gone and when I step out on my deck, birds are all I hear. The cicadas started early this summer--not the usual ones, not the dog day ones, not the ones that make me sad. These were the Magicicada Brood III, the...
Broken Bits
I will not be posting during June. Of the months of summer, it is June when my children are least busy and I want to put aside the distraction of the internet for that month. Between now and then, whether we--you and I--find ourselves at the ball field or the office,...
Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Proverbs 4:26
