Category Archives: May

May 25, 2026 Thanks to an overdeveloped inner critic, I have lived most of my life thinking that being good at something is wrong – or rather, letting people know that I’m good at something. In high school, I would sometimes pretend I didn’t know an answer even when someone asked me directly. The betterContinue reading “…And Comes Back Out Again [Announcement]”

May 30, 2025 The last graduating class of Northland College walked the stage this past weekend. I have written about how my time at Northland taught me to take an active role in my community and to leave it better than I found it. There is a direct line leading from my professors’ exhortations ofContinue reading “Social Fabric”

May 12, 2025 I finally broke through my recent bout with uncertainty to find that I had a lot of very certain work to do in my garden. It’s mid-May, and I’m still working to prepare the plot so I can plant my future charges. Luckily, the folks at the community garden couldn’t make itContinue reading “The Plot Thickens”

May 18, 2024 I missed both of the recent appearances of the Northern Lights. On the first night, while others posted gorgeous photos, the aurora by my house was doing its best impression of clouds. The next night, I was so excited to see it that I went to my viewing spot far too earlyContinue reading “Night Light”

May 16, 2023 It recently came about that my modest outdoor seating area got an upgrade in the form of lighting. I’ve never been against such a thing, but I admit it also never occurred to me before now. It wasn’t until the lights were up and running that I realized what a spartan existenceContinue reading “Illumination”

May 5, 2022 The other day, I went into a store and was immediately helped by three considerate employees. These folks knew exactly what I wanted and where to find it. They talked me through my options and I left promptly, glad I had made the trip. There’s no way to tell this story withoutContinue reading “Service Announcement”

May 22, 2021 It might finally be time to put away my winter clothes. I’ve been dutifully folding and packing them, then taking some out again, since early March. Back then, 50 degrees was a heat wave. But each successive cycle saw me getting less tolerant of the cold (until I heard the inevitable “You’reContinue reading “May-be”

All is (not quite) right. May 11, 2021 I said I was busy last month, but most of that was one-on-one activities with friends (or events with a defined endpoint where I couldn’t linger). Last weekend, though, I had the pleasure of going to a real live Event. It came complete with kids running acrossContinue reading “Aftermath”

May 2, 2021 It feels like I just made the switch to a 2021 calendar, and suddenly I’m turning the page from April to May. The April that just ended couldn’t have been more different than the earlier one chronicled on this blog. I had much more of a social life and went to manyContinue reading “Full Circle”

May 25, 2020 The specter of my job starting up again has caused a flurry of commitments to appear on my calendar. Not all of them are work-related, but their net effect is that I feel my free time slipping away. If I’m being honest, the past two or three weeks have been the hardestContinue reading “And How Does That Make You Feel?”