Category: Uncategorized

Slice of Life Day 1 of 31:  Journeys

A few weeks before our trip to San Antonio, Texas in February 2022, my travel buddy realized she would be unable to make the trip with me.  Having traveled to Rockport, Massachusetts together back in October 2021, we had carefully curated a list of our future trip destinations before we ever got home from that trip, and San Antonio was among the choices for our next getaway. 

We’d spent weeks before our trip sharing packing hacks, like putting our foundation in a contact lens case, and looking at excursions and tours to book in advance based on the weather forecast. Her review of On Clouds as her best walking  shoes for traveling had prompted me to shed my $15 clearance rack non-tie Merrells that had taken me all over Europe in 2019 and purchase a pair of non-tie tidewater blue On Clouds.  

Don’t worry about me, Ginger, I texted, I’m the free spirit who ventured over to Germany all alone back in 2019, I replied after she broke the news.  If anyone should be apologizing, I figured, it should be me – – for keeping the plans and going without her.  The truth is, I might have backed out if the trip had been refundable – but it wasn’t, and I’m always too cheap to purchase the cancellation insurance. – or worse, take the hit and give up the trip. I was really going to miss her, but future trips together depended on her sitting this one out.

And my trip to Germany?  Yes, I had taken a solo journey there and back, but I’d met up with a group of teachers there who were all, like me, in training to take a group of students on a European tour.  So while I’d made the Germany trip alone, I’d had folks waiting at the destination to explore and learn with me.  There’d be no group waiting to go exploring and share meals with me in San Antonio.  

I made a few attempts to offer the extra room in the VRBO, but by that time, my friends had already made other plans for the school break and my husband had to work. Quite honestly, I didn’t figure too many others would want to travel with me.  I keep odd hours.  I rise at 5:00 a.m. to write and blog, and I like to get out to explore early.  LIkewise, I retire early – – I like to begin winding down around 7:00 p.m. so I can be asleep at 9:00 – my firm bedtime.  If I don’t get proper sleep, I’m worse than a cantankerous toddler.  Although I wasn’t sure whether I would be a great candidate for journeying alone, I knew that this would be a better alternative than trapping some poor soul thinking they were going on a vacation into an itinerary that may have had them scrambling for a return flight home the very next day.  

Surely there were more lessons to be learned in addition to purchasing cancellation insurance, wearing non-tie walking shoes with good support, and putting makeup in a contact lens case. And I knew there was far more listening (my 2022 One Little Word) to be done. 

I decided to make the trip alone and consider it an adventure in discovering whether it was possible – and I would blog not only what I experienced along the way, but what I learned on my travels, all the while looking forward to the time that Ginger and I could travel together again in the future. And this will be my Slice of Life blog theme for each day of March 2022:  journeys. 

Isaiah 41:10 

Don’t be afraid, because I’m with you; don’t be anxious, because I am your God. I keep on strengthening you; I’m truly helping you. I’m surely upholding you with my victorious right hand.

Today, I celebrate and reflect on one solid year of daily writing,

consider the coming year.  

I’ll go for two and do it again – 

with more intentional themes this year.  

I’ll begin two books.  

There.  I’ve written it, shared it in print.  

A blog post each day

and 

two books. 

I won’t take a sabbatical from work.  

Who writes two books at once? 

My people and I do.  

Because there are stories to be told 

that must be told now.  

While every voice is ready to tell them.

One is a father/daughter book. 

I’ll write parts and pass the baton.

Back and forth we’ll write stories we must tell.

Then I’ll rest a moment,

pick up the other baton.

The second is a book of many voices of hope ~

Hope that is needed now more than ever

reassurance that 

God is still in the miracle-working business.  

I’ll be a collector of miracles, 

Of inward journeys to 

the depths of souls,

Where God changes the

trajectory, 

Where He restores brokenness,

where He performs

Life-saving miracles the world needs to know.

I listen to these stories. 

I pick up the pen.  

This is why I write.  

This is my why. 

Acts 4:29-30
²⁹ Lord, pay attention to their threats now, and allow your servants to speak your word boldly ³⁰ as you stretch out your hand to heal and to perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

1 year, 1 goal, 1 step at a time ~

Yes, I did it – and so can you!

Every single day for one solid year, write and post.

A writer’s ultra marathon and tomorrow, I will

Reach it and keep going.  One solid year of daily writing.  I did it!

Now – how shall I celebrate?

Mad black bucking bull

-not a friendly Ferdinand-

returns to the ring

I fly home today 

back to where I’m known and loved 

~there’s no place like home! 

our hearts full of smiles

on the Johnson Funny Farm’s

thick pine tree forest 

uncurtained windows 

so we can see our wildlife ~

deer, squirrels, and birds 

travel is focused 

-heightened awareness of place 

of people, of food

of plans to have fun 

to learn, to experience 

culture, history 

to pack the mindset

take it home in my suitcase 

-adventure each day

I fly home today 

back to where I’m known and loved 

~there’s no place like home! 

Thank you to sharingourstoriesmagic.com #sosmagic for giving writers space, voice, and inspiration

Temperatures dipped

Here in San Antonio

Ninety to forty

From eyelids sweating

To stuffing ears with Kleenex

Texas is extreme!

Today I am writing through the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com, where our host encouraged us to write Picture Book Poems.

My favorite picture book as a child was Tibor Gergely’s Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories, but the one story I loved more than any other was A Day in the Jungle by Janette Lowrey. My mother read it to me over and over, and I think back on this story about the fear that rises in a group and how so many of our fears mount unnecessarily. You can read it here: https://youtu.be/J5jrBfsHGA0

No Fear

There was no monster
howling and shrieking with rage
~just a friendly owl.

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, Susan Ahlbrand is our host at the Open Write. She encouraged us to write palindrome poems, or mirror poems that use a forward and back pattern. I chose sleep. After having Covid, it takes a long time to shake the fatigue. All I want to do lately is sleep.

morning, wakening

naptime, midday siesta

bedtime: dreams ahead

Today at http://www.ethicalela.com, Susan Ahlbrand is our host of the Open Write. She encouraged us to write a poem to something about which we are passionate as our poem today.

Dear travel, you keep

me looking forward to our

next planned rendezvous!

Rockport last fall break

Salem witches, Gloucester whales

hopeless wanderlust…..

San Antonio

and Texas Hill Country this

break……where to next? -Kim

Glenda Funk, a February host at http://www.ethicalela.com’s Open Write, inspired us to write Kitchen Ghost poems, inspired by her own reading of Crystal Wilkinson’s poetry. Today, I write this poem in memory of my oldest living aunt, Jeanie Haynes, who died on February 2, 2022 at the age if 95.. She drank Dr. Pepper and loved her family!

Kitchen Ghostangels

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

Sometimes when I open the recipe box, the ghostangels march out to the

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored

strains of How Firm a Foundation and In the Garden, and I’m taken back

He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword

to the caramel and chocolate layer cakes hidden beneath the dented

His truth is marching on

silver metal cake cover to those kitchens in South Georgia where my ancestors

Glory, glory, Hallelujah…..Glory, glory, Hallelujah…….Glory, glory, Hallelujah

cooked chickens alive that morning and baked cakes with fresh-fallen pecans and

His truth is marching on …..

rolled red and green candied fruit in flour to put into our Christmas fruitcakes and

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea

sometimes I think of those dishes with the Cherokee Rose pattern along the edges

with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me

that once stood in the cabinet with all that carnival glass and milk glass some of which

as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free

now lives here with me as I wonder about its next stop and sometimes I open an ice

His truth is marching on

cream sandwich and think of the time I ran past Meema to the freezer without hugging her

Glory, glory, Hallelujah

hello first and how that didn’t end well at all and somewhere in all of this, I know

Glory, glory, Hallelujah

they are still strong spirits who come at will and find their way back to Heaven through

Glory, glory, Hallelujah

their own timewrinkled handwriting on the cards in my recipe box

His truth is marching on…..