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I was merrily strolling along the sidewalk in my lavender Crocs when the toe of my right shoe buffed against the cement and BAM! I was down on the sidewalk, blood oozing from my knee. What just happened? Double that…

A lifetime ago, a young married couple carted me to a clearing in their new backyard. I was tall and strong and it took both of them to lift me. As they patted the soil around my roots, settling me…

“I found mine in a tree,” a friend told me excitedly, while we visited in an Alabama restaurant. “I found mine hidden in some weeds,” her husband said, leaning toward me. “Someone had painted Mississippi on the top.” The delight…

Discussions about online fatigue and the value of face-to-face experiences are prevalent these days. I’m sure we’ll have more virtual options in the future, but engaging with a screen can’t compete with being on site and physically being with others.…

“Stop bouncing around so much,” Jean, a master tennis instructor, had coached me. “Plant those feet when you’re hitting the ball. And relax!” No more acting like a Jack-in-the-box, I tell myself later, when facing my opponents. If my partner…

Yesterday I had the chance to share my latest picture book (virtually) with two bilingual classes in New Jersey. The second graders were enthusiastic, especially when I held up a snakeskin and the shell of a snapping turtle, my storytelling…

My family will celebrate several spring birthdays, and it’s time for me to think about gifts. What makes a gift special? In order to find out, I decide to list gifts that left an impression and examine why they did.…

The year was 1975. I was twenty-one years old, and I’d just gotten my first teaching position as the Title 1 teacher for Wisconsin Dells. With only three days before the start of school, I was about to see my…

I was returning from a Kiwanis meeting at Camp Wawbeek on February 8th. My husband and I had taken separate cars since he wanted to attend a boy scout meeting, and I wanted to return home and type up the…

Ready for a trivia game? Who said the following? “I don’t have no plans of slowing down because the number says I should. I don’t pay attention to that. I wake up with new dreams every day.” Here’s a hint.…