The Bloom

I don’t have the greenest thumb in the world, but I like to make things grow. So I keep lots of plants in my windows, potted herbs on the kitchen counter, and during the summer even a few larger containers outside. With the days getting warm, it’s time to decide what to grow in those containers this year. I’m thinking about green onions. Maybe carrots. Definitely tomatoes. (Gotta have tomatoes!) It doesn’t really matter. For me, it’s not the harvest. It’s the planting and the tending I love most—the journey not the destination and all that. I just like to...

You know what’s great about the world? The way it can turn around and surprise you with a little gift and a bit of a lift when you least expect it. It’s a cold, raw, rainy day in my world, the kind that can make you feel a little low and lost. I’ve been moody and everything is irritating me, so I splurged on one of those gourmet chocolate bar things that always look way too dangerous but are always way too expensive. I don’t even want to say how much it was. But it sure was good. Except that...

A year or so ago I had the official worst day ever. I overslept and left my wallet at home (no double latte for me). I missed my bus and the morning staff meeting, which earned me a special one-on-one with the boss, which I had right after I found out that the writing class I wanted to take had filled up before I’d signed up. Lunch ruined a new sweater with a stain I didn’t catch, and it was downhill from there. I was not slaying it. It was slaying me, and by the time it was over, I...

When I was a kid, my parents took me on a killer cross-country vacation, and it was one humungous major-league adventure. From Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the whole month was packed to the roof of Mom and Dad’s minivan with big days in even bigger places. I was about thinking about that trip yesterday because yesterday was quite possibly the most boring day in the entire history of the human race. Nothing happening was happening in my world, and everything I was doing had already been done to death. I wanted to be doing something huge—climbing a mountain, trekking...