January is a month of looking ahead and planning for the year. We make work goals and vacation plans. I dream about where I’ll take my solo journey, my pilgrimage. This year, I have the excitement of anticipating the birth of my first grandchild, a baby boy – a new chapter of life about to … Continue reading The Plans I Have for You
#stepforwardfromcancer
Prayin’ Trees
I didn’t know what to say to her, my nursing director who’d found her husband after he’d committed suicide. What can words do when someone has had such a tragic loss?Later, when I was driving home from work, riding through the country, I noticed a huge oak tree in the middle of a pasture. Underneath … Continue reading Prayin’ Trees
Follow Your Whim
Just three days into January and I’m starting to feel boxed in. It’s not the record cold weather, or my Christmas decorations losing their luster. This is the season when I start to ponder where I might go on my solo journey, my yearly pilgrimage. The snow in the forecast reminds me of a similar … Continue reading Follow Your Whim
Things You Leave Behind
It's New Year's Eve and I'm remembering that day in September when I stood with the others on the shore of Iona Sound. All forty-one of us from the Abbey were invited to take a pilgrimage to all the important sites on the island. That portion of the beach was where St. Columba and his … Continue reading Things You Leave Behind
Your Favorite Things
I spotted the Santa holding the globe on an after- Christmas sale table. That’s mine, I thought and wasn’t sure why I was so attracted to it. But then looking around my house, I was reminded of the globes and maps I’d collected, drawn to the landforms of the earth and the blues of the … Continue reading Your Favorite Things
Polly’s Gift
I first saw the painting in December of 1992. My Aunt Polly invited me to come to her house and pick out presents for my sons for Christmas. She loved all her great-nephews and nieces and had purchased toys, books, and candies to give the seven of them. I was surprised to see paintings lined up … Continue reading Polly’s Gift
Carry a Song
I crossed over Jordan Lake listening to one of my favorite songs, “God of Wonders” in what became my ritual for preparing for radiation treatments. I followed the same pattern in an attempt to make the unfamiliar seem routine; leave home at the same time, put in the Third Day CD when I pulled out … Continue reading Carry a Song
My ADHD Made Me Do It
The patrolman handed me the dreaded paper and stepped back into his car with the flashing blue lights. How in the world can this be happening, again, I thought, my third ticket in eighteen months. What was wrong with a fifty-something-year-old woman, mother to adult sons, and responsible nurse-- in this trouble again? My mind raced … Continue reading My ADHD Made Me Do It
Don’t You Deserve to be Cared For?
"I thought I was done with cancer. But now they're saying I need lymphedema treatment," I told her, irritated at this interruption in my life. I'd traveled to Edisto Island, South Carolina for my second solo journey the day after I'd been assessed at the Lymphedema Clinic. When they told me I'd need intensive treatment, … Continue reading Don’t You Deserve to be Cared For?
Journeys to the Past
At this time of year, I feel a yearning to return to childhood. I long to smell the cedar tree decorated with a string of large multi-colored lights and icicles; to taste the cherries in my aunt's paper-thin cookies; to feel the rush of being in the basement of Rose's Dime Store looking at my hoped-for … Continue reading Journeys to the Past
Connie Rosser Riddle 