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A Birthday Wish: Keep Wondering
While walking on one of my favorite hiking trails, a monarch flits past me. This fragile insect, no heavier than a paperclip, will soon begin its journey to Mexico—battling heat, storms, and cold, adjusting its flight with the sun or, on cloudy days, its internal compass. How is that possible? I often struggle to remember […]
The Spirit of the Crane
Garoo-oo-a-a-a. The call of the sandhill crane always makes me search the sky. My fascination began in my 30s, when my husband and I joined the annual Sandhill Crane Count. We rose at 4 a.m., brewed a thermos of coffee, and set out to meet park coordinator Ed O’Brien and others in a wetland near […]
Outfoxed by Eighteen Pounds
Every evening after supper, my husband and I scheme and whisper like spies as we plot ways to get our small dog to take her three pills… and nearly every night Josie outsmarts us. I start in the kitchen with liver sausage. She neatly extracts the pills and spits them on the floor. I move […]
The Storm That Built a Shed
It started with a mess: rotting firewood, a broken cartwheel, and my husband muttering, “Maybe I’ll try to fix it.” At the time, it felt small and ordinary. Later, I thought of the saying that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. Frank’s offhand comment was the […]
A Root Canal in Italy
I’m on the porch flipping through the Italy section of my latest travel catalog when a tooth in my lower right jaw throbs. Please stop, I tell it. I try to distract myself with descriptions of Italy’s art, culture, and the vine-clad Tuscan hills. I linger over images of the turquoise Mediterranean coast and its […]
Fifty Years of Finding Home
I’m taking a twilight stroll along the river walk when it strikes me: fifty years ago this week, I moved to the Dells. I can still see myself lugging suitcases down a narrow spiral staircase into the basement apartment I’d rented. The place had hosted seven summer workers before me, and it showed—dusty corners, greasy […]
It Takes a Crew—And a Little Glow—To Make Magic Happen
Last week I added a surprising new addition to my life’s résumé: hot air balloon crew member. My brother, sister-in-law, husband, and I joined my cousin Mike—a balloonist—at the Rhinelander Hodag Park’s Salute to Heroes Balloon Festival. He handed us T-shirts, pins, or earrings representing Wally, his smiling orange fish. The balloons wouldn’t be flying […]
That Creative Buzz
I’ve got that buzz again—that creative thrill that zings through me when I stumble on just the right idea for a column or dream up a fresh way to celebrate the launch of my latest book. My fingers twitch. My thoughts race. I feel lit up inside. I imagine bestselling Midwest authors like William Kent […]