Category: Knoxville, Tennessee

AI rendering of a healthy retina (fundus photo)
Communicating, Essays, Knoxville, Tennessee, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, Presumed Ocular Histoplasmosis Syndrome, Retina Diseases, Storytelling, Writing

Reflection: Apparently, I Don’t Have a Retina Condition

It is the first Saturday morning in a long while we can sit outside on the screened porch and have our coffee without melting. Friday’s afternoon storms have cooled the atmosphere considerably after weeks on end of blistering days, and now a sudden cleansing downpour is a gift from the heavens. Smells nice, too. A clap of thunder sends our young Henry-the-Hound skittering for cover … Continue reading Reflection: Apparently, I Don’t Have a Retina Condition

Unknown's avatarDeb German1 Comment
Knoxville Ballet School lec-dem on the stage at Knoxville Museum of Art in February 2012
American Ballet Theatre, Ballet, Descriptive Writing, Essays, Knoxville, Tennessee, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Reflections, Travel, Writing

Reflection: Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to LaGuardia

The surly flight attendant held the small black mic to her lips and advised us to keep our seatbelts fastened while the plane taxied to the gate. Nobody in their right mind would challenge this humorless woman. A moment earlier my heart jumped when our plane seemed to descend not toward a reassuring paved runway, but instead into the East River; from my seat I … Continue reading Reflection: Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to LaGuardia

Unknown's avatarDeb German1 Comment
empty living room in a Tudor-style house, with hardwood floors, banks of casement windows on one wall, crossbeams on the ceiling, and a massive fireplace at one end
Architecture, Essays, Family, History, Home, Knoxville, Tennessee, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Parenting

Reflection: You Can Never Go Home

They’re over here on the sofa passed out in their prom dresses. My friend Molly’s observation came in her familiar silken contralto voice at the other end of the phone line, and made me giggle. It was time to go retrieve my toddler from an afternoon play date with hers just a few blocks away, and it sure sounded like it had been a good … Continue reading Reflection: You Can Never Go Home

Unknown's avatarDeb GermanLeave a comment
Autumn, Baking, Bread Baking, Christmas, Dogs, Essays, Family, Food, Home, Knoxville, Tennessee, Marriage, Non-Fiction, Reflections, Writing

Reflection: No Use Crying

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms There was … Continue reading Reflection: No Use Crying

Unknown's avatarDeb GermanLeave a comment
Architecture, Dogs, Essays, Family, Great-Grandmother Gracie, History, Home, Knoxville, Tennessee, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, Reflections, Storytelling, The South, Wilmington, North Carolina, Writers

Reflection: Good Neighbors and Bad, and Even Famous Ones

Sitting on the screen porch in my Adirondack chair a couple of weeks ago, wrapped in a fleece blanket, I felt like somebody must’ve on an oceangoing ship in the last century, reclining in one of those graceful wood steam liner chairs. Maybe it wasn’t quite warm enough to be outside on the deck, so the attendant came around with a blanket and some hot … Continue reading Reflection: Good Neighbors and Bad, and Even Famous Ones

Unknown's avatarDeb German1 Comment
Chef David, Essays, Family, Great-Grandmother Gracie, Home, Knoxville, Tennessee, Marriage, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Parenting, Reflections, The South, Writing

Through the Lens: A Rare Glimpse Into an Old Version of Me

I read a quote recently that goes something like, people who knew the older version of you would not recognize who you are now. This might be true, although I believe a person’s essence never changes, and by that I mean, warts tend to hang around—but so does what’s good in each of us, I think, and the good can even blossom if we let … Continue reading Through the Lens: A Rare Glimpse Into an Old Version of Me

Unknown's avatarDeb German2 Comments
Architecture, Books, Essays, History, Knoxville, Tennessee, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, North Carolina History, The South, Travel

Reflection: Forgotten Dwellings, Untold Stories

There are stretches of busy highway here and elsewhere in coastal North Carolina where dwellings long abandoned stand in various states of ruin; some are so far gone an observer must look closely to find any evidence at all of the built structure nature seems intent to reclaim. Nor is it unusual for glossy new shopping centers or prosperous neighborhoods to pop up on either … Continue reading Reflection: Forgotten Dwellings, Untold Stories

Unknown's avatarDeb German2 Comments
Chef David, Christmas, Dogs, Family, Food, Home, Journaling, Knoxville, Tennessee, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever, Travel, Writing

Sunday Almanac: Thanksgiving 2023 Is in the Books

I need a vacation from the vacation.” It was The Chef’s answer to me after we wrapped up our Thanksgiving travel, when I asked how he was feeling ahead of his first day back at work, just a few hours away. We had five glorious days off, five consecutive days, where our agenda was possibly a tad too ambitious. Heading over to Asheville to spend … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: Thanksgiving 2023 Is in the Books

Unknown's avatarDeb German1 Comment
Aging, Chef David, Communicating, Dogs, Essays, Family, Food, Home, Journaling, Knoxville, Tennessee, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Parenting, Reflections, Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever, The South, Travel

Reflection: A Father’s Day Gift

It is Monday, the first full day in my week-long visit to Dad’s place down in Chattanooga, to his comfortable house in the suburbs (more properly in Ringgold, just over the Georgia state line) he shares with Sheryl, his lovely wife of many years. These travel plans have been in the works since way back in the fall; Sheryl and her two daughters who straddle … Continue reading Reflection: A Father’s Day Gift

Unknown's avatarDeb German5 Comments
Descriptive Writing, Family, Home, Journaling, Knoxville, Tennessee, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, Reflections, The South, Vermont

Reflection: The Places That Mark Us Indelibly

What is it about permanence that is so alluring on the one hand, and so vexing on the other. When my kiddo was tiny, he developed an appetite for drawing and coloring with permanent markers because they were forbidden. If his tiny fingers found their way around a Sharpie, in short order I’d have to pry it loose and then replace it with a less-desirable … Continue reading Reflection: The Places That Mark Us Indelibly

Unknown's avatarDeb German3 Comments