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An Unsupervised Life
My daughter secretly worries a little bit about my living alone and she has good reason. Recently, she sent me a TikTok and said, “I’m crying because this is you!” It was a young woman my daughters age talking about her Mom getting banned from the app Next-door for being a little too honest. My…
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Calloused
When I was a kid, the men in my family had calloused hands and Daddy had a row of callouses on the palms of each hand from continually gripping things, especially a shovel, or axe. Back then, callouses were evidence of hard work. I was grateful for the winter to wear long sleeves, but now…
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The One-Eighty
Taking in my surroundings, I note a wisp of dog hair that was missed by yesterday’s vacuuming, or it’s a new one that formed overnight. The mini-blind on the window in front of me is hanging crooked. The right side is lower than the left, so I walked over and straightened it, then did a…
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Ritual for Mornings
Your heart and soul know what you need, and what it wants, but the plan doesn’t deviate. To sum it up in one word, I’d choose ‘water’, and it’s a series of small things that water mine. Over the weekend, I made a decision to take time for ritual, especially in the morning. I’d noticed…
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Plan Nothing
I’ve slowed the flow of my blogging after remembering I’d rather lay my hand to a few things and give it my all, rather than a multitude of things half-assed. When the space opens, I show up. The way we start our day determines the quality of life within the next few hours of the…
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The Open Road
A couple of years ago I met a guy who loves motorcycles. Now, this isn’t a phenomenon by any means, but he just seemed to live for them. He grew up in California and raced dirt bikes as a kid, but the kid in him never outgrew that feeling of adventure. He could tell you…
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The Glitter Stapler
Practical can be pretty. It may not be as sturdy, or dependable as the logical choice, but it’s more fun. Pretty is to be enjoyed ever how long it lasts but holds no guarantee of how long that’ll be. I don’t recall the whole story but remember the gist of it to share. My daughter…
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A Fitted Sheet
I love flannel sheets in the winter, but this winter has been relatively mild which offers pros and cons. When we had our cold snap a couple of weeks ago, I took advantage of it and placed flannel sheets on my bed, but that feeling of coziness was short lived as the temperatures began to…
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Bring It Inside
Some of the best life lessons I’ve learned, have been taught by plants. They don’t ask for much, just a warm place to sit, a little bit of food and some water, but they’re not happy when it gets too hot, or too cold. This house has a metal roof, and I woke up this…
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Our Inner Child
On social media, people are posting pictures of snow, and this stirs up some of my best childhood memories. Our house sat almost at the top a hill and the road was paved with chunky asphalt. A drainage pipe laid under each driveway installed by the city, and I remember ours had a concrete bowl…
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The Magic of Christmas
I’ve been dodging anyone who asks, “How was your Christmas?” I spent time acknowledging the true meaning of Christmas, but didn’t connect to the magic of the season. My daughter and I didn’t get to see one another, so it didn’t feel like Christmas for either of us. Christmas has always been a big deal…
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Think Small
Running out of dog food, or half and half will force me out of my house to go buy more, but even the half and half can be replaced with a mixture of milk and cream, which I usually have. If it wasn’t for the dogs, I’d rarely leave home. The dogs add structure to…
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Collecting Moments
My daughter thought it was hilarious that I finally scraped the strip of blue tape from the window. Sadly, it helped both of us realize how dirty all our windows are. It’s funny what we notice, but ignore simultaneously and it’s been so long since I’ve cleaned the outside of a window that I’d forgotten…
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Good Enough
While living alone there’s not a lot of opportunity to speak out loud, or to hear yourself talk, so you create small practices. I call friends and family on the phone, or see a neighbor while out for a walk and stop long enough to carry on a conversation. Alone doesn’t mean you lose your…
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Use Every Room
This post was sitting in drafts but most of it was copied over and published as, ‘Believer’. Here’s a snippet of what’s left. I’m sitting smack in the middle of my daughter’s old room while writing this. Mainly because it’s the coolest room in the house this time of day. In the late afternoon, the…
Inbarbsworld 