Behind the Puddle
The stories behind the stories, reflections on the patio, the puddle, accessibility, home, writing, and the unexpected ways a small place can change how we experience our lives and the world around us.
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Enough for a Hummingbird
This morning, I saw something move among the salvia. It was small enough that I could have missed it. A quick little movement between the purple and red flowers, followed by that familiar hovering that makes you stop whatever you are doing and look a little closer. A hummingbird had come to visit. And this… Continue reading
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Planning Forward with Advance Directives
There are some documents we complete because someone tells us we should, and there are others we complete because someday they may need to speak when we cannot. Advance Directives belong to the second kind. Their purpose is not to predict exactly how our lives will unfold, but to leave the people who may someday… Continue reading
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Behind the Puddle | Acceptance
The babies aren’t really babies anymore. I suppose I knew this was going to happen. That is generally what babies do. The little mallards that once stayed tucked together have grown. The young geese that followed their parents through the yard are becoming harder to distinguish from them. The families spread out farther now. There… Continue reading
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Pinecone Brought a Friend
For quite a while, Pinecone seemed perfectly content to experience the yard alone. There were other squirrels around, of course, but Pinecone was the one I noticed, the little squirrel who learned the maple tree, investigated the feeders, stole what wasn’t intended for them, and became another familiar face outside the patio. Somewhere along the… Continue reading
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The Ones Who Simply Stand Beside Us
This morning I am sitting quietly on the patio watching the puddle, and there really isn’t much happening. The Lone Goose is wandering around by itself, as it so often does, and I think Stanley is standing along the edge doing what herons do. No great wildlife moment is unfolding in front of me. They… Continue reading
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Behind the Puddle | Home
We have lived here for a long time. Long enough that I could probably measure parts of our lives by what used to be where. The pool was there. That tree used to be bigger. Something used to grow over there. The girls were little when that happened. The dogs used to run through there.… Continue reading
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Behind the Puddle | Peace
I don’t think peace waits until everything is okay. If it did, I’m not sure many of us would experience very much of it. There is almost always something. Something unfinished. Something uncertain. Someone we are worried about. A decision we haven’t made. A conversation we need to have. A bill that needs paying. A… Continue reading
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Some of Us Live For the “ber” Months
Some of us really do live for the “ber” months. September. October. November. December. There is something about this stretch of the year that has always felt like coming home to me. The air changes. The light changes. The world seems to soften around the edges, and suddenly a blanket, a warm drink, a fire,… Continue reading
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I Still Need Proof
I know Great Blue Herons perch in trees. I know this because I have looked it up. I have read about it. I have watched Stella and Stanley fly into the trees around the puddle more times than I can count. I have watched them sit quietly on branches, move higher into the tree, and… Continue reading
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