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Life with My Heart in Two Places

Life with My Heart in Two Places

Life with my heart in two places was hard for many years. Writing fiction helps me cope, though my homesickness will remain as long as I live.

Life with my heart in two places began in 1978 when Hiram and I moved from the ice cream capitol of the world in Le Mars, Iowa to a remote part of South Dakota. I was homesick for paved roads, orderly green fields of corn and soybean, and living close to the library and stores. And my family. I really missed my family.

Not surprising since I was twenty-two and away from home from the first time.

The surprising bit began seven years later when we moved back to Iowa, and I became homesick for South Dakota. My homesickness continues to this day, even though my morning walks along the lake are filled with beautiful views. I snapped this picture and imagined what fall must be like in Harding County as the cottonwoods drop their leaves against a backdrop of rugged buttes and short grass prairie.

Life with my heart in two places won’t end as long as I’m on this earth.

Writing fiction is the perfect way to cope with homesickness. Every afternoon I sit in our Iowa living room, open my work in progress, which on this day is Hear Jane Sing!, and start writing. Immediately I’m in the town where we once lived, surrounded by the children and families I still love. I can smell the crisp, fall air and almost touch the stars hanging low in a sky untouched by light pollution. When it’s time to fix supper, I return to Iowa where a trip to the grocery store for missing ingredients takes ten minutes or less.

So far as life with my heart in two places goes, this is the best of both worlds.

Sign up to receive website updates and See Jane Run! book news on Gravel Road’s home page right under the picture of–you guessed it–the gravel road.

Three Thoughts for Thursday

Three Thoughts for Thursday

NASA's concept of a bargain basement, a new vision of magic words, and the beauty of autumn in this week's 3 thoughts.

  1. In an interview, a aerospace engineer suggested the US explore Mars with a satellite for the bargain basement price of 75 million dollars. That was, perhaps, the first time the phrases “bargain basement price” and “75 million dollars” were used in the same sentence.
  2. My 3-year-old grandson is learning to use magic words like “please” and “thank you.” But because he’s only 3, he calls them “maggot words.” Such a word picture.
  3. Sometimes, the beauty that is October brings tears to my eyes. What brings tears to your eyes in October?
Three Thoughts for Thursday

Three Thoughts for Thursday

Yogi Berra, author mathematics, and Little House in the Big Woods cozy in this week's 3 thoughts.

  1. I’m taking the death of Yogi Berra pretty hard. Not because I’m a Yankee fan. But because the media tributes have revealed that at least half of my dad best one liners were plagiarized from the great ball player.
  2. After double-checking the math, I can confidently say that having 3 books published in 1 year + completing a mystery novel = almost 2 much.
  3. With a winter’s worth of jugs full of rain water for the house plants in the basement, as well as several apple pies and bags of basil pesto in the freezer, our home has that Little House in the Big Woods cozy feeling.

What makes your house feel Little House in the Big Woods cozy?

Pick a Little, Talk a Little this Fantastic Friday

Pick a Little, Talk a Little this Fantastic Friday

A gathering of goldfinches and their similarity to the Pick a Little, Talk a Little crew from the Music Man is this Fantastic Friday's look at the past.Today’s Fantastic Friday post first appeared on Down the Gravel Road in September of 2008. Considering the popularity of a recent listing of ten reasons to watch The Music Man, this article about some very noisy birds in our neighborhood seemed to be a logical choice.

Pick a Little, Talk a Little

Yesterday morning, I was walking along our gravel road at top speed, oblivious to the scenery around me, when the noise from the ditch awakened me from whatever inner thoughts consumed me. The chirping along the fence was deafening.

For a few seconds, I couldn’t see a thing. Then, I noticed the grass waving and saw a bit off fluff pulled from a seed pod. Finally the noisemakers, a small flock of female goldfinches, came into view. Their dusky gold coats so perfectly matched the browning fall grasses, they were barely visible. One by one, their movement and their chirping, gave their positions away. By the time my camera was out of, some of them had flown away, but a few remained.

While I snapped their pictures, I thought of the song from The Music Man, the one when all the town gossips are busy spreading rumors. The music makes them sound like a flock of old bitty hens. That’s exactly what the goldfinches sounded like, scolding and flapping their wings at each other. I half expected Robert Preston and Shirley Jones to march by, followed by the 76 trombones and the rest of the band.

Instead, I saw a sure sign of fall, the goldfinches flocking together as they do at this time of year, stocking up on provisions before they journey south for the winter. What I wouldn’t give to be going with them, I think as I face the prospect of winter.

But if I do that, I won’t be here to welcome them next spring on the day they return. No matter how hard the coming winter will be, the joy I feel when the birds come home melts my aversion to snow. Their return beats Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, the 76 trombones, and the town gossips, hands down. I can hardly wait.

Top Ten Reasons to Love November

Top Ten Reasons to Love November

pieNovember is such an awkward, unlovely child with it’s chilly days and long nights. Even so, here are ten reasons to love this hard-to-love month.

10. The chances of being bitten by a rattlesnake are low.

9.   It’s a good time to rearrange the living room and sweep the insect corpses that have been hiding under the furniture since the Man of Steel discovered the bee hive in the AC unit a while back.

8.  Turkey prices go way down. Good for humans. Bad for turkeys.

7.  The trees that still have leaves look so courageous, hanging onto their foliage with all their woody might.

6.  Morning walks are lighter for a few weeks once Daylight Savings Time kicks in.

5.  Outdoor plants moved inside to winter over give the house a safely-tucked-in-bed feeling.

4.  Every once in a while God offers up a gloriously warm, calm, and sunny day.

3.  In case you haven’t yet heard, The Caregiver’s Notebook released this November. What’s not to love about that?

2.  It’s time to make pie.

1.  Thanksgiving with the family, eating great food, playing board games, and hugging our grandson!

What do you like best about November? Leave a comment.