Read MoreAttempting the Keys
Some people are willing to wreck a perfectly good piece of white. Take snow, for instance. Why can’t we leave the perfect, even-keel fluff alone? Before you know it, our boots compress, tires impinge. The absence of color goes away, replaced by the colors of humanhood. For some time now — some might call it a month, some two — I’ve stared at another form of white space — a blank screen. The white stuff is so pretty that I prefer to look at a blank page rather than destroy it with bad writing. No matter how many times I…
Read MoreA New Year
A new year. A new canvas. Pick up your brush. Paint your dreams into reality. Go ahead. Make the world look different. — Julie Saffrin
Read MoreThose Who Champion
This post originally appeared at The Novel Way, a website of which I no longer am a part. But because of comments the blog post generated, I am reposting it here with minor changes. Although visitors to my blog will mostly find posts that speak to the power of gratitude, occasionally readers get my musing on about various and sundry topics. Today’s topic is about the power of influence. BlessBack®: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life is a non-fiction book. It certainly has elements of fiction in it, as it is filled with stories of unique characters whose lives are triggered by an…
Read MoreThe Tale of the Tablecloth and Manger Moments
Last night, at Substance Church in St. Paul, Minn., Peter Haas, the pastor there, told a Christmas story which I had never heard. I hope it touches your heart this Christmas season, as it did mine. The writer of this story, Howard C. Schade, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Nyack, N.Y. penned this story in the December 1954 issue of Reader’s Digest. Note: I checked with Snopes.com and it says this story is likely legend. I’ll leave that for you to decide. As for me, I choose to believe what Schade wrote in the magazine’s “Drama in Real…
Read MoreMeet Bonnie McGrath: Writer of 800 Christmas Cards Each With Handwritten Note
Meet Bonnie McGrath: Writer of 800 Christmas Cards Each With Handwritten Note EDINA, MN — Think you have a big Christmas card list? You haven’t met Bonnie McGrath. Not only will Bonnie send 800 Christmas cards in December 2013, she’ll write a personal note in each one. “For me, it is just very meaningful that I put something in the note that lets the person know how I feel about him or her,” Bonnie said. “I feel it’s the only time I might have to talk to a person and I want to stay connected.” Seems a lot of us…
Read MoreA Shower for the Baby Bump Gal
December 2013 As Mary Lee Underberg, my fellow baby shower hostess said, “It’s so weird. We’re having baby showers for our babies.” Where has the time gone? How did we get to giving baby showers for our friends’ children when it seems only yesterday we gathered for play dates with them in each others’ homes? Sunday, December 14, 2013, Mary Lee, Betty Selness and I put on a baby shower for Erin (Lindvall) Carr, who’s expecting to deliver her first child mid-January. She’s expecting a boy. Here’s how our day looked. Many, many thanks to Mary Lee and Betty for their amazing culinary…
Read MoreRaise a glass to “Savor” and the Fredrickson Winery series
I’ve known a few people with mirthful eyes. Their “windows to the soul” express joie de vivre as do the merry wrinkles that surround them. Though those with happy eyes have circumstances too, they choose to live with a bounce in every step. Being in their presence is to experience a mood-altering drug of joy. Their clever turns-of-phrase and jokes bring them as much pleasure in the telling as in the sharing. Author Barbara Ellen Brink has mirthful eyes, and, lucky for her readers, that mirth is poured into the Fredrickson Winery series. Reading this three-book series made me smile.…
Read MoreEagles put on spectacular loop-the-loop show on Dead Lake
“…one wing tip a space marvel…” Carl Sandburg Summer 2013 at our lake home in Ottertail County brought us bald eagles. They seemed to like our wetlands and frequented the place. If you’d like to hear what they sound like, thanks to the National Geographic website, you can do so here. At the Perham fair, a handler from The Raptor Center brought a rescued eagle for all to see. This one was blind in one eye and 30 years old. Still, it is a sight to behold. On one of our trips to the north bay, we spotted an eagle…
Read MoreJohn Cleese, Creativity & Light bulbs
Curious as to why some people are creative? “It’s not about the talent; it’s a way of operating,” said John Cleese in his 1991 speech given on creativity to Video Arts, a UK-based e-learning company. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time, not only for what Cleese says about how creative types operate but also how he cleverly and seamlessly tells you about how many you-name-its that it takes to change a light bulb. My favorite: Q. How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? A. Only one, but the bulb has got to really WANT to…
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