“The forsythia have leaves already! Spring can’t be far away!”

Sometimes Facebook memories are great. They remind us of what was happening a year…two years…five years ago. I have to admit, they were really awful when I was in the throes of active grief and some wonderful memory with Mr. Virgo popped up. They don’t hurt so much now and I enjoy seeing where we were.

On February 15th of last year, the peepers were out. It was 65 degrees. Peepers are those little frogs we’ve talked about many times here and they are the harbinger of spring. Unfortunately, our climate is so messed up, the flora and fauna get confused when we have these waves of warm weather. So far, I haven’t heard the peepers yet.

“I Have a Voice” woodcarving by Evelyn Jimenez

I have met some of the nicest people through my blog. One is a widow named Evelyn. She became very ill after losing her husband and very nearly died herself. Evelyn is a woodcarver, which I find endlessly fascinating. I’ve tried my hand at carving but I haven’t had the right tools for the job. I really would love to try again sometime…in my SPARE time. sigh 

“There’s broken. Then there’s forever broken.”

I have a friend from my coffee group who recently lost her husband. She had a health issue and needed to be hospitalized a day or two after her husband died so I went and sat with her for a while. I recognized her grief. I knew her brokenness. I remember.

Even though it’s been nearly six years now since Mr. Virgo died, you don’t forget. Even though I have this wonderful man in my life now and we are deliriously happy…you don’t forget. Time knocks the sharp edges of your grief away, making it softer with distance…like looking for the mountains through a misty haze. You know the mountains are there. You remember what they look like. But you can’t quite make out the details.

‘Homemade Guacamole is the BEST!”

I used to adore going out to dinner. LOVED it! Mr. Virgo ruined that for me. After spending the majority of his working life in the food and beverage industry, restaurants held no allure for him. He “inspected” every place we ate. He pointed out infractions. He critiqued menus. And don’t get me started about what happened when the food arrived. Let’s just say, sleeping in hotels and dining in restaurants have lost their allure for me as well. 

“It pays to buy quality shoes!”

For about the last six months or so, I’ve noticed a pain in the ball of my left foot, near the base between my third and fourth toe. It feels like what we used to call a stone bruise. I rely on walking as my main exercise but this has become decidedly uncomfortable. I know I haven’t been wearing the right shoes this winter…mainly out of laziness. I just grab the quickest slip-ons and I know they don’t provide the proper support.

“When grief calls, I’ve learned to listen.”

This past Sunday, our pastor spoke about “doing” the Word as well as ‘hearing’ the Word. He talked about how we become overweight Christians by coming to church and filling up on the Word without working it out. God gave the Word to us to not only fill us up, but to go out and DO it.

This got me to thinking about what I “do” with what I’m given. My answer is…this. I write to you. I sit down with you for a little chat. You are so kind as to invite me into your space to share coffee or to rock on the porch or to hold your hand for a little while. Sometimes, you let me talk about Jesus and how he has changed my life. Sometimes, you laugh at my antics when I lock myself out of TOW-Wanda or I misunderstand something Mr. FixIt says. 

“Mother Earth News was my manual for a good life.”

Daughter #1 texted me this photo yesterday of Mother Earth News magazine. She said “I didn’t know they still published this.” I looked at the text and smiled. It hit my “mom feels” for a number of reasons.

First, because I just wrote in my book the other day about a time when the Mother Earth News magazine was a huge part of my life. Second, because she remembered it. And lastly….she is a very busy adult, teaches full time and moms my two beautiful granddaughters and lives in Colorado…we don’t get to share moments like this very often.

“Deer grazing outside my window in TOW-Wanda.”

I have now spent eight out of the last ten days in TOW-Wanda and I have to tell you…I feel like a million bucks! Usually by this time of year, I’m ready to pull my hair out with boredom. I usually become less content with each passing day, even though the daylight is becoming longer…the long, dark nights shorter. The only two things I have done differently this year is leave the tree up and spend long hours in my camper.

My mother said I had the “gift of gab”. Daughter #2 swears I can “talk to a tree”. They are both correct. I am, as my longtime sister/friend puts it...wordy. I try to trim my words down, but If I don’t tell you the back story, how are you going to get the significance, right?

I fixed my coffee and stepped into TOW-Wanda at around 10:00 yesterday morning. By 4:30, with only one short break, I had over 25,000 words written over the course of seven writing days. I think that’s got to be some sort of record! For me, anyway.

“When I write a ton, I have a tendency to forget who I told what to. It’s an occupational hazard.”

I’m knee deep in writing this book now. All week, I have gathered my coffee and my writing gear and headed out to “the office”…my wonderful little home on wheels…TOW-Wanda. I turn on the furnace and curl up on the day bed, cover up, and sip coffee till it warms up enough to concentrate. When I shut it down at 3:00 yesterday afternoon, I had 20, 534 words written. It’s amazing!