I’ve been thinking a lot about my personal writing projects lately. Thanks to the sage advice of Julia Cameron in “The Artist’s Way,” I have taken to journaling most days of the week… and those activities keep me in touch with my inner ticker, while maintaining my balance with Being. Looking through my database of poetic writings, one has jumped out to me tonight, due to the fact that I wrote it precisely 23 years ago. It makes me realize what a very long way I’ve come in this span of time, and how much I have to be thankful for. Read more

I’ve written here before about my “Ramble” creative writing project. On Dec. 30 of 2009, I sat down to write a Ramble entry for my late grandmother Beatrice Ridings, who was widely known to many as Granny Bea, Aunt Bea, or Ms. Ridings. I had two wonderful grandmothers who have now passed on, and luckily for me, Grandma Eileen Darnell, who we called Bam, was also tight with Granny Bea, so on more than one occasion, I was able to enjoy them both together simultaneously. I am in the gathering process for a future post about Grandma Bam, but I’m very proud to finally share something with you that I feel is a suitable tribute to Granny Bea. Read more

We are dearly missing my sweet Aunt Helen Ridings, affectionately known as “Aunt Honey,” who passed away early last Tuesday at the age of 84. She has fought hard against many challenging health conditions over the past years, and always maintained her upbeat attitude, while sending us the pure kind of love that is the root of confidence in life, and one of its greatest treasures. Today, I’m thinking Read more

Sunday, June 3, 2001: Home At Last

In case you missed yesterday’s report, we did finally catch my dad (aka Big Jim, or BJ) at Cracker Barrel, along with Peggy, my step-mom. We all had a nice dinner together somewhere around 9pm, and then we all made it to the Ramada there in Crossville, Tennessee. But darned if BJ didn’t have another trick up his sleeve, and sure enough, he beat us to Boone… by about an hour!

First, though, I need to back up a little. Read more

Saturday, June 2, 2001: Almost There

The wake-up call came at six Central time, and it actually succeeded in getting Beth to arise (it most certainly was wasted on me). Once awake, this hotel wasn’t a hard one to leave quickly, but we were a little worried to find Callie sitting in the front window, considering that pets weren’t allowed. Oh well — we figured that, if we receive a call from someone asking why they’d seen a one-eyed calico cat in our hotel room’s window, we’ll just say,

“You saw a what?!”

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