Stray Thoughts: Highly evolved?

I was watching a program on YouTube in which a herd of zebra was being followed by an aggressive and hungry pack of hyenas. They isolated one from the rest, then one by one took turns choking it and attacking its weakest parts, pulling and ripping until it’s guts were exposed.

The Struggles of a Single Mother

When I was a kid, my single mother would run through cycles of boom and bust. Money was very tight with one income earner, no government help, and seven kids.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

When I first met Amigo, one of the old geldings my husband brought home last week, I knew he was special. Amigo is here to enjoy retirement from the guest ranch where he lived and worked for 20 years, and be a part time kid horse for our 6 and 8 year olds. He has a regal air about him.

ALS - Not Just Lou Gehrig’s Disease

On July 4, 1939 Lou Gehrig said these famous words at Yankee Stadium, “For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break that I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Stray Thoughts: In the Wake of Youth

It’s a trying time to be young. In the process of learning about yourself and what makes you feel good and what makes you feel supported, there are invariably those left in the wake of your discovery…or you in theirs.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Across our north pasture, and on into our neighbors’ bordering pastures, abandoned homesteads dot the landscape at regular intervals. Some feature old houses and windmills that are still standing despite years of neglect.

Stroke: The Great Equalizer

A friend of ours just recently had a stroke. Most strokes occur when blood flow in the brain is interrupted by a blood clot that travelled there, and the part that is damaged or affected depends on the area in which the clot lodges in the brain.

National Suicide Prevention Month

There is one word that can make a person’s heart ache forever. That same word causes another heart to stop beating. September is National Suicide Prevention Month and September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day.

A Cow’s Life

If it weren’t for the last few steps it wouldn’t be so bad to be a cow. Whenever I drive by cows in a field, they are lounging around on soft grass, more or less worried about nothing. A light wind gently brushes their hair, and the warm summer sun around them looks pretty good from my perspective.

Little Pasture on the Prairie: End of Summer

It’s hard not to get nostalgic this time of year. Beneath the high heat, there’s something new lingering on the edges. The back-to-school vibes abound. The earth still smells of baking bread at midday, but now the fields carry the unmistakable scent of curing leaves.