Prisoner of Hopes

Category: Uncategorized

  • Coming Home

    Coming Home

    It is no secret that I love to stay busy. I love to hike and bike and travel. When I leave the house, I enjoy anticipating what each new day may bring. Perhaps it is innate in me, this sense of adventure. Perhaps it was cultivated by my elders, who made each step outside the…

  • Christmas Whispers

    Christmas Whispers

    What is it about Christmas preparations that create such divided feelings? For some, it is (to borrow a cliche) the most wonderful time of the year. For others it is a chore that produces anxiety and depression. Perhaps Christmas magic as an ideal is hard to achieve, but Christmas magic as a simple daily experience…

  • Friendship

    Friendship

    If you’re ever in a jam, here I amIf you’re ever in a mess, S.O.S.If you ever feel so happy you land in jail, I’m your bailIt’s friendship, friendshipJust a perfect blendshipWhen other friendships have been forgotOurs will still be hot. (Noel Coward) Noel Coward wrote some catchy tunes. You can’t help humming along. This…

  • Passing The Time

    Passing The Time

    Today I am thinking about time. How quickly the years go and how slow the hours. I am sitting in a tiny coffee shop in a small Indiana Town. A fun find in the middle of nowhere. . . or somewhere, depending on your view. It is quirky and artsy, and best of all, it…

  • In Praise of Trees

    In Praise of Trees

    I love trees.  They speak to me in ways that I can’t adequately describe. The sturdiness of their limbs, the roots reaching deep into the ground, the delicate leaves; all contribute to their timeless beauty.  Of course, trees are also practical. Trees keep the air clean by filtering carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. One…

  • May the Road Rise Up to Meet You: Travel Goals Ireland

    May the Road Rise Up to Meet You: Travel Goals Ireland

    “Hands on the wheel. Eyes on the road. Don’t overdrive your abilities.” I’ve had plenty of driving under my belt, and yet I still remember my parents advice from when I was learning to drive. (This is because Dad still gives advice from the passenger seat when I drive him anywhere, even though I have…

  • Fly the Friendly Skies?: Travel Goals Ireland

    Fly the Friendly Skies?: Travel Goals Ireland

    Travel is a passion. The anticipation makes me giddy. New places and new faces call to me.  There is very little about travel that I do not enjoy….except airlines. Airlines make me miserable. If there is a way to make humans more inconvenienced, more anxious, and more impoverished; they have incorporated it.  I don’t fault…

  • Transported

    Transported

    Last evening, I happened upon a program I had never before encountered. The set was cheesy, a tiny theater set up to look like the interior of a barn. The host looked as if he had just been picked up out of rural 1970 on his way to work at a bank. As a matter…

  • Flower Power

    Flower Power

    Flowers inspire emotion. This past week, we invited our neighbors for dinner on the patio. He came in carrying a pie and she came carrying a beautiful arrangement of dahlias that she had grown in the back yard. I love pie, but my heart went immediately to the flowers. They are stunning and they sing…

  • Wild Horses: Rural Road Trips Missouri

    Wild Horses: Rural Road Trips Missouri

    I’ve heard the saying, “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.” A few weeks ago, I heard an old song that proclaimed that the secret to life was, “faster horses, younger women, and more money.” This week I had several encounters with the wild horses of the Ozark Scenic Riverways. As we were arriving at Echo…