Tag: Reflections

Dogs, Essays, Home, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, Running, Running With Dogs, Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever, The South, Vermont, Writing

Reflection: Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever at 11½

Some 900-plus days into our tenure in coastal North Carolina, and I believe this dog has finally made his peace with the sometimes-oppressive humidity, the stormy nights, rambunctious neighborhood kids, the unpredictable action of the ocean on a good beach day, and all the rest. And while he may not have whole-heartedly embraced all these conditions in his life, like most dogs living their best … Continue reading Reflection: Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever at 11½

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Chef David, Dogs, Essays, Home, Journaling, Non-Fiction, Photography, Reflections, Storytelling, Writing

Reflection: The Current State of Things

It is five of five in the morning and I am hanging my head over the sofa from behind it, about to awaken a sleeping chef until I realize he is wide awake. I am driving him to an early appointment at the doctor’s office in an hour for a little thing, so it is time to get moving. He is not fine, he tells … Continue reading Reflection: The Current State of Things

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Essays, Reflections, Writers, Writing

Reflection: Why Is ‘Hurrying Never’ So Elusive?

You know that feeling at the end of the day, when the anxiety of that-which-I-must-do falls away… That moment when you think, Oh God, what have I done with this day? And what am I doing with my life? And how must I change to avoid catastrophic end-of-life regrets? […] At the end of my life, I know I won’t be wishing I’d held more … Continue reading Reflection: Why Is ‘Hurrying Never’ So Elusive?

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Chef David, Descriptive Writing, Essays, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, North Carolina, Running Injuries, Storytelling, The South, Vermont, Writing

Reflection: Piloting Through Chapter and Verse

Memories that pop up in social feeds can be cruel, but as often they’re so beautiful. Once in a while, images surface as reminders Chef David and I somehow found time to do things together, a lot of things, in the chapter that was life in Vermont. But leisure time seems so elusive somehow in this chapter. We’ve been in our new house for a … Continue reading Reflection: Piloting Through Chapter and Verse

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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

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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

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Communicating, Dogs, Essays, Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever, Writing

Reflection: Effective Communication Is Worth Its Weight in Gold

Or dog poop, take your pick. Preamble It is Friday at 2:00 am, and I sense a furry critter bedside staring me down, standing where he normally does not. Scoutie, what is going on? He paces over to our bedroom door and peers out into the living room. I can tell his brow is wrinkled from the forward position of his ears, like maybe he … Continue reading Reflection: Effective Communication Is Worth Its Weight in Gold

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Essays, Family, Great-Grandmother Gracie, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Reflections, Writing

Family Reflection: Bastard Son of a Woman Named Minnie

You probably got it from Granddaddy Eddie, mom opined over the phone. It doesn’t matter, I have it and now I’ll deal with it, I returned. High blood pressure. Maybe it runs in the family, maybe not, who knows. My doctor put me on some meds, told me to shed a few pounds, and then asked me to check in with her again in a … Continue reading Family Reflection: Bastard Son of a Woman Named Minnie

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Cuisine, Descriptive Writing, Essays, Food, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Reflections, The South, Vermont

A Memory: When Fresh Food Still Had Flavor

However you think of Garrison Keillor’s indiscretion, the one that got him dismissed from NPR, no bad behavior can eclipse his storytelling talent, and that is the truth. Who among us has never been lost in a news monologue from fictional Lake Wobegon, who hasn’t nodded along silently or smiled at a yarn about some character’s ill-wrought decisions and the unfortunate but hysterical consequences of … Continue reading A Memory: When Fresh Food Still Had Flavor

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Aging, Great-Grandmother Gracie, Knoxville, Tennessee, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Reflections, The South

A Mother’s Day Reflection: Great-Grandmother Grace

My Great-Grandmother Grace was born in 1899, died in 1991, and lived her entire life, as far as I know, in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was not so much a Southerner as an Appalachian, a flavor of Tennessean native to the eastern region of the state known as ‘hill country’ (hence ‘hillbilly’) because of its proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains—the particular stretch of the Appalachian … Continue reading A Mother’s Day Reflection: Great-Grandmother Grace

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