Trish Hermanson's Blog: Croutons - Seasoned Bits of Life, page 14

Donna's Surprising Takeaway from a 2,200-Mile Trek

      Donna Nedde trekked five million steps and 2,200 miles and came away with a message that surprised me.     
     She and her husband Tom Kinsella took five months conquering the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, a journey through fourteen states. This is like scaling Mt. Everest sixteen times.
     Donna, whom I met at the rec center, burned through three pairs of hiking boots and lost fifteen pounds, typical for hikers who consume five thousand calories daily just to maintai...

Getting a Fresh Coat of Paint

     My husband Duane says I get more paint on me than on the walls, but I’m trying to rejuvenate our home with a fresh coat of paint. And how the memories flow as I listen for hours to rock classics: “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” - when Frank didn’t show up at my party. “You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’ - when Larry and I broke up.     
     These were tragedies back then, but we all kept going because we were told “don’t let the sun catch you cryin.” And there was always som...

When Your Yellow Brick Road Trips You

     That’s me as Dorothy and my husband Duane as the Tin Man as we’re off to see the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Along with the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, we’re seeking brains, a heart, courage, and a way home.     
     Which is what we all need along life’s highway, isn’t it? Because every day we run into flying monkeys that vex our minds. Wicked witches that crush our emotions. Dark paths that leave us fearful to take another step. Our Yellow Brick Road trips us up.     
     But ca...

My Hero Is a Loser

     My hero is a loser.     
     Every way he tried to find happiness and purpose failed. A broken marriage. A broken career. Broken political dreams. A broken reputation. And broken health, leaving this once handsome man bent and blind.         
     He thought he could create paradise on Earth, but everything let him down one way or another.     
     Isn't that how life is? We put our hope in a social movement; it falls short. Or in politicians; they break promises. Or a business vent...

How General Jackson Helps 'Conduct' My Ways

     Who would guess that what I’m learning in choir would help to set a course for my life?     
     But that’s what occurs through my choral director, a spry woman of eighty-nine sometimes called General Jackson. Jo Ann warns that singing is boring if we punch out every word at the same volume. The gentle general says we need dynamics, variations between a whisper and a crescendo.     
     Through her graciousness in teaching music, Jo Ann demonstrates that even though I can’t orchest...

My Day in Court

     At my county courthouse, not even Thomas Jefferson could keep me from the bright light of justice. I was among the potential jurors, and frankly, none of us wanted to be there. We’d had to shift work responsibilities, find child care, bend schedules.     
     But there we were, ages twenty-one to seventy. Among us a bar tender, a nurse, a student, a home renovator, a tutor, a writer, a man with a runny nose, and a woman with a cleavage deeper than the Grand Canyon. Nothing would no...

Am I an Axolotl?

     At an aquarium, I met an axolotl, a salamander that is doomed to remain in the water because it doesn’t matur fully, and I wondered whether I’m sometimes an axolotl.     
     During metamorphosis, this strange creature loses its tail fin and develops legs, but continues breathing through gills. It’s stuck in the water while other salamanders climb onto land and breath fresh air.     
     I get stuck in the waters of immaturity sometimes, too. Like when I don’t accept responsibility...

DEAL! Lunch for Less than $5 Million

     Deal of the week! For less than $4.57 million we can have lunch together.     
     That’s how much tech guru Justin Sun is paying to have lunch with financial whiz Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha. Proceeds go to charity.     
     So here’s my offer: bid on a lunch with me, and if you win, the Ditz of Denver promises not to give you a shred of financial advice. The winning amount will go to a nonprofit where I volunteer, JeffCo Eats (jeffcoeats.org), which supplies food to kids...

The Father I Don't Know

     I’m the blondie in the stroller with my sister, pushed by the father I don’t know.     
     Early one morning my mom came into my sister’s and my bedroom with red eyes. She handed us tiny cups of grape juice and quietly announced, “Daddy’s in Heaven with Jesus.”
    The night before at age thirty-nine, he’d slumped over from a sudden sharp headache and died. A brain aneurism, we think.     Ask me my age then, and I would have held up five fingers.     
     Ask me today how many memo...

How to Fall Forward Like My Friend Victoria

     My friend Victoria showed me that when we fall, whether from our failures or things inflicted upon us by others, we don’t have to fall back. We can fall forward.     
     Even through tough times, Victoria’s stock response was “it could be worse.” And she endured tough times: hiding under the kitchen table when Nazi bombs rained upon England during World War II, a hardscrabble upbringing in Liverpool, the death of a husband, raising kids on her own, a foreclosure, and a brain injur...