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I’m hiking into the woods near my home in the Dells at night, feeling eyes on me. My mission is to see if I can get the resident barred owl to call back to me, an annual event that, to…

I’m retrieving balls at the Baraboo High School tennis courts before my partner and I begin a second set of doubles. Just outside the fence, three young girls sit cross-legged on the cement. Ah, the wonder of being that young…

My husband and I were in Cologne, Germany, last May, waiting in a long line to use the public restroom. The staff of our Rhine River Tour had warned us we’d need tokens (worth around $.50), so we’d gotten a…

A milestone birthday looms before me. While biking down a country road, Toby Keith’s classic, As Good As I Once Was, keeps echoing in my head. I ain’t as good as I once was; I got a few years on…

Reindeer herder in Norway

I’m relaxing in my doggie bed after supper when Mum comes in waving my favorite toy, a stuffed lamb, around. I ignore her, and she looks at me with a look of concern. “What’s wrong, Josie?” What’s wrong? Does she…

At Walmart, I see a girl, age 9 or 10, accompanied by her mother, filling a cart with school supplies. I’m immediately transported back to the fourth-grade classroom. “Mrs. Laundrie,” a nine-year-old boy says, rubbing his forehead, “I’ve been working…

photo credit: Tara Draper “What would bring you joy today?” That question is one that life coach and yoga instructor, Kristen (Omkari) Kloostra, would have us ask ourselves daily. “Are we reconnecting with our inner child and allowing ourselves to…

It would have been easy to stay curled up in the recliner, but I’d signed my husband and me up for a Wisconsin Natural Resources class “Beautiful Bogs: Bog Ecology & Tour,” and it was time to grab our tall…