attitude | patdurmon

The Heart of the Educational System

It's a Sure Sign

Heroes

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My Foe Is Me

I’m okay with the earth sleeping in the winter. I can take a break from foliage, petals, colors, but when the skies stay gray day after d...

Heavy Wind

Saturday morning. Skies are clear. An hour after awakening, my husband shows me the two tall pines we lost in the night. One lays toppled...

Giving Thanks in the Midst of Smoke

I am blessed to know a woman with the attitude of gratitude. Her name is Mary Kathryn Marcom. She lives north of San Francisco where peop...

Voting at Lone Rock

Midmorning. We entered the parking lot at the church where we vote. We could not believe our eyes. So many cars. Wonderful turnout. We sm...

Wisdom I’ve Borrowed from Friends

I have been highly blessed to have known wise women during my lifetime. What a difference they have made. Sometimes they appeared one at ...

And So, I Don’t Have to Hurry...

I look across the hayfield and see nothing but Queen Anne’s Lace, a field of wildflowers. Something is wrong here. Instead of hay, we hav...

Welcoming Strangers

I did not put on makeup today. Just didn’t waste the time or makeup. I have a self-imposed deadline. Focused. Busy. Putting a manuscript ...

Connecting, Heart to Heart

I keep bumping into people who look fine on the outside. When I stay quiet and listen, they talk on. That person is leaving a familiar ru...

Anger at Self

Almost August. My last two months are full of eustress* and distress: a family wedding, reunions, trips, plans broken, lack of rain, putt...

Instructions on How to Not Give Up

More than the garden phlox growing rotund heads, more than the display of bright red canna tongues shoving their way upward toward sky, i...

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