A few weeks ago, I was on the internet and saw something about what it means when you find a white feather. Because I never see white birds (other than Seagulls at the beach), I thought the chances of coming across a white feather seemed slim, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I quickly forgot about it and continued with whatever I’d been looking at or for. Several days later, I took my dog out to do her business, and when I looked down, there it was—a single, pristine, white feather. I stood there looking at it and thinking how curious it was that I’d seen that thing…

There’s a one-word question people often ask that rarely elicits a concise answer—that question is: Why? Have you ever asked your teen why they did something they shouldn’t have or didn’t do something they were supposed to do? If so, chances are that the answer you received was, “I dunno.”  Your first instinct may tell you that they’re being a smartass or maybe just giving you a lazy reply, but if you think about it, how many times have you asked yourself the same question about something and found that you struggled to come up with a better answer? This is especially true when you want to know why something…

I love a good quote, especially when the author of the quote used a quill to write it. What constitutes a “good” quote? Well, for me, it’s one that not only rings true but also gets me thinking—recently, I came across this one that checks both boxes: Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (side note: What a GREAT name) There are less eloquent variations of the same concept, but those tend to compare actions to words. We’ve all heard, “Actions speak louder than words,” and the reference to the opposite—hypocrisy—in, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  But I like this…

I recently went through the camera roll on my phone to do a bit of cleanup. You never realize how many useless and nearly identical photos you have until you look at each one to decide whether to keep or delete it. The number of screenshots of ads for shows and movies I thought I might like to watch soon (some more than a year old—yikes) was ridiculous. And there were even more screenshots of cake and other very bad-for-you dishes—things I shouldn’t even be looking at, let alone making. There are some photos, though, that I will never part with, and while doing my cleanup, I came across a…

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I’d save up my weekly allowance, and when I had enough saved, my mom would take me to the local toy store, where I would buy one of the dolls. The dolls had cute names like Strawberry Shortcake, Apple Dumpling (a baby), Blueberry Muffin, and Huckleberry Pie. On top of being adorable, they were scented, and they smelled heavenly. Then, there was the Strawberry Shortcake bakery, a must-have for any serious collector; it came with a little oven, some fake pies, some garden utensils, and plastic strawberries, among other things. But there was one small problem with the…

It was the end of the eighth-grade school year. I stood in the garage in tears, pleading with my dad while he folded his laundry. Before that day, he’d agreed to let me go on a three-week vacation to Iowa with my best friend and her family. I know, I know—Iowa—for vacation? When you’re fourteen, and your friends invite you to go somewhere, it doesn’t matter where you’re going or what you’re doing. What matters is that you get to hang out with your buds. Three weeks of uninterrupted hanging out would be pure bliss, and the thought of missing that was inconceivable. That day, standing in the garage, I…

Recently, I saw a question posted on Facebook that went something like this: When you were a kid, what was something other families had that made you think they were rich? When I was young, I believed that anyone with a two-story house was loaded, and I always got super-excited if I was invited to stay over with someone who lived in one. I mean, HELLO, there were STAIRS…that you could slide down. And why, when I got there, did we spend time playing games or watching television when there were stairs just waiting for a kid to come slide on them? How did those kids make time for things…

The day my mom died was the day I stopped believing in God, heaven, and the other nonsense to which so many of my friends subscribed. I was of the opinion that there were only two types of people—the living and the dead. When someone died, that was it. They didn’t go to a better place or become reincarnated. They simply ceased to exist. I sometimes wished I could believe in the hereafter, then maybe my mother’s death wouldn’t have ripped my guts out the way it did. And perhaps at the funeral, when my neighbor Mrs. Sykes hugged me and whispered, “Don’t be sad, Emily. You’ll see her in…

When we hear the word accomplishment, we often think of things like certifications, degrees, and job promotions.  I looked up the definition of the word, and the one I like best is the successful completion of a task.  If someone asks me how my weekend was, I immediately think of the things I did (or did not) do.  I feel like any productive day equals a good day, and the same goes for the weekend.  Although downtime is something we all need from time to time, I find that for me, productivity is much more satisfying than sitting around. The things I get done may be small things: I vacuumed,…