Protecting Our Privacy Has a Cost. What Are You Willing To Pay?
Early in the spring of 2008, the Rockport, Texas Master Gardeners held their Hidden Gardens tour, where individual homeowners gave tours of their private back gardens. Because I’ve always been an avid gardener, I thought this would be something I’d enjoy. I came back incredibly inspired. I saw fabulous private landscapes hidden away from public […]
Losing the Queen; Losing Our Mothers
The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II this past week has me thinking about what it means to lose our mothers. Of course, in the case of the Queen, she was not only the mother of a quite large extended family, but the female figurehead of a huge Commonwealth of Nations. I cannot imagine […]
Chased by Hurricane Rita: The Aftermath of a False Alarm
My boyfriend Craig and I made the move to Rockport, Texas in the spring of 2005 for the purposes of opening an art gallery. After an intensive search for a property to house the gallery, we finally found what we were looking for in April of that year and began extensive renovations. The whole process […]
When a Mother Fails to Love: What’s Helped Me Move On
Like most girls in junior high school, I tried out for all the cheerleading squads every time tryouts came around—basketball, football, even wrestling. And like 95 percent of the girls, I never made the squad. My kicks weren’t high enough, my splits weren’t split enough, my arms weren’t board-straight enough, I couldn’t jump high enough—and, […]
Preikestolen Kicks My Ass (and a Buzz Kill Named Harvey)
Several hours into the hike, with my heart feeling it was going to explode right out of my chest, I stopped once again at the side of the trail to let a wave of people pass me by and tried to slow my breathing down, which was coming in huge, embarrassing gulps and wheezes. “For […]