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The Music of Freedom
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost Years ago, when I first started teaching high school English, I was also the school newspaper advisor. My journalism students tended to be bright, curious, and outspoken. But when I gave a random current events quiz on the…
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The Bumpy Road of Life
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost My husband is currently in the throes of a new project; he’s planning on writing a novel which will be set in some future apocalyptic time. At least that’s his current vision. So far, he has read two…
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Don’t Forget the Square Corners
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost There’s a famous clip on Instagram of Navy Admiral McRaven delivering a commencement speech to the class of 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin, in which he encourages graduates to start their day by making their…
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Love Who Is There
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost My Uncle Tom was a Down Syndrome child. He was born a year before I was, when my grandmother was in her late forties, and it was at least two full generations before ultrasounds became a routine part…
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One Tongue, Two Tongues
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost A week or two ago, I went to the end-of-the-school-year program for a granddaughter, who is in third grade. It wasn’t an ordinary program. In fact, I didn’t understand a single word. Not one. That’s because it was…
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The Rest of the Story
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost Son #2 died 17 years ago from the complications of a lifetime of drug addiction. Last Friday, I watched his son graduate from college. I’m pretty sure my son was looking down from Heaven. And smiling. My grandson’s…
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I’m TOO Old For This
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost I cooked fried eggs on our new stove in our newly remodeled kitchen yesterday. Not as easy as it sounds. Technology thumbed its nose at me and leaped ahead with something called a radiant cooktop. A shiny, oblong…
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Home is the Place Where . . .
When you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost This month, I had occasion to take Robert Frost at his word. I was about to be homeless, and I spent a few weeks feeling out the possibilities of housing for my husband and me with several of my children. All of them…
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No Greater Love
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost It was 3 o’clock in the morning when the phone rang. Nora groaned and rolled over, grabbing the phone off the charger and trying to focus her eyes on caller ID. But she needn’t have bothered. There was…
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Step To The Music, March in Time
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost I went to a funeral this week. It was not for an old friend or a treasured family member. In fact, the funeral was for a person whom I had met formally only once and since then have…
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The Hero Tales
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost Last week I re-read The Hobbit. It wasn’t that I didn’t remember the story. I taught The Hobbit every semester for several years in the only high school Science Fiction/Fantasy class offered in Jordan School District. But I…
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Lonely
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to let you in. Robert Frost My dad, who spent the last 20 years of his working life after he retired from the Air Force as a family therapist, had been sitting in uncommon silence staring into space one evening just before I left…
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Treasures of Trash
Home is the place where, where you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost I have a new goal! Advancing age has made me realize that it’s time to get rid of my “stuff”, but I haven’t wanted to because–well, advancing age also means I’m tired and sometimes feel crappy. Plus, truthfully,…
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Amazing Grace
Last week, Son #1 called me to let me know the LDS Church had just downloaded the first small selection of hymns for its new hymn book, whose publication release date is sometime next year. Though he loves music, he is the least likely family member to be chosen to do a solo in church,…
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The Organ Concert for One
Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost This week I attended an organ concert—I was the lone member of the audience. I’ve had a long history with the organ—none of it involving my own musical aptitude, which is high on the “love” scale, but, sadly,…
