Today, I talked with my younger son, Ross who's thirty-five. Over the past year, I've watched his growing interest in land and eco systems, specifically the history of types of indigenous trees and plants that grew on my childhood farm, purchased by my great-grandparents in the 1800s. For the first time, Ross has planted twenty … Continue reading Cultivating Our Lives: From Seeds to Harvest
Breast Cancer Survivor
A Life Without Regret: Embracing the Journey
This past week I had the privilege of being with a long-time friend who is dealing with an incurable cancer. She's been treated with every chemotherapy available but still the cancer returns. I consider it a privilege because she included me in the limited time she has as her life is narrowing in. She's getting … Continue reading A Life Without Regret: Embracing the Journey
The Creep Factor: Online Dating
It was a year ago when I started down this adventurous path of online dating. Our twelve months of separation had been completed and the settlement papers signed and sent to the court. It was time to move forward in the only way possible in the midst of a pandemic. Don was the second guy … Continue reading The Creep Factor: Online Dating
21st Cancerversary: Live Your Best Life
On Tuesday, I'll reach the twenty-first anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis. You don't forget that day--no matter how many years it's been. The doctor told me those most-feared words, "I think it's cancer" at around one- thirty, during my lunch hour when I'd had my mammogram. Later, I was diagnosed with the Triple-Negative type … Continue reading 21st Cancerversary: Live Your Best Life
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: Online Dating
Online dating relies on two pieces of information: pictures and profiles. I've heard of this new form of finding your match being called 'data dating.' Unlike how it was back in my day, that guy becomes a fully formed image in a piecemeal fashion; you see his primary picture that pops up first, and if … Continue reading A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: Online Dating
A New Thing Springing Up
Last week, I talked with a friend and she noted that she'd been in a "blah mood"--but couldn't figure out why. There were no new challenges, no worries at present about medical tests results for family or friends, nothing bad had happened. She could list things she was grateful for--but still felt her spirit was … Continue reading A New Thing Springing Up
New Year, New Beginnings
Yesterday, it stopped raining and the sun finally broke through. I went outside at three o'clock to walk followed by an interval jog. Unlike my usual pattern of going in the early morning, by waiting until mid-afternoon inertia had set in. I jogged for a while and just wasn't feeling it, but kept trying and … Continue reading New Year, New Beginnings
Harvest Walk
Everywhere we look, there are scenes of fall, harvest tableaus with bales of hay, pumpkins, and shocks of corn. It reminds us in our modern day of our agricultural roots and how farmers gather their crops before frost and either store or sell them. I think of the past year since the last harvest season … Continue reading Harvest Walk
From Survivor to Thriver
This month we focus on Breast Cancer Awareness; there are pink balloons and ribbons, special flower bouquets at the grocery floral shop, walks and runs to raise money for research and treatment. Some have called it 'Pinktober' with the flurry of pink, and sometimes that feels as excessive as the overdoing of pumpkin-flavored everything. Last … Continue reading From Survivor to Thriver
Just Enough Encouragement
At almost 91, Mattie Belle is one of my oldest readers. I've known her since I was in ninth grade and became friends with her daughter, Delores. I was so touched when she sent me this handwritten card after she read my memoir. Delores told me that when her mother finished my book, she loaned … Continue reading Just Enough Encouragement
Connie Rosser Riddle 