Category: Musings

  • Sheep are Generous Creatures

    Sheep are Generous Creatures

    Some people don’t like to work with sheep. I don’t blame them. They can be infuriating little creatures, especially if you’re trying to herd them. They’re always getting themselves in some kind of trouble it seems (There’s a reason why us humans are compared to sheep so much in the Bible). On the ranch we…

  • Ambition Anonymous: an addict’s fortunate fall from academia

    Ambition Anonymous: an addict’s fortunate fall from academia

    Seasons don’t change immediately. They slip and slide into each other: Not quite sure whether to go forward, winter melts into fall again. Yearning for the past, spring won’t let the grass grow. In South Dakota, May has had us shoveling snow when we’re expecting bouquets of flowers. In nature, change isn’t usually abrupt, but…

  • Rugged Individualism Isn’t That Great

    Rugged Individualism Isn’t That Great

    Before I met my husband, I was beginning to like the idea of me being single with no friends, living a Thoreauvian kind of life by myself in a sheep wagon: writing poems about dirt, doing stand up comedy for my border collie, not worrying about the negative side effects that inevitably come from being…

  • “Be True Be True Be True!”

    “Be True Be True Be True!”

    Have you ever read the Scarlet Letter voluntarily? If so, it’s possible that people hate you. Mainly because you might stumble through life with a sour expression on your face, looking for happiness in melancholy. For the healthy people that haven’t, here’s the low down: Hester Prynne (married) and Reverend Dimmesdale commit adultery in ultra-Puritan…

  • Slow life 

    I wake up in the morning and make breakfast for my dad and I, the usual-broccoli and eggs. Dad is out flying so I have about an hour. As soon as I see him walking back from the airplane hanger I put in some toast for our hour of coffee and conversation. We’ve somehow managed…