Trish Hermanson's Blog: Croutons - Seasoned Bits of Life, page 3

Covid Stole His Career and Home but Not His Heart

     The Covid financial downturn stole Rollins’ career and his home - but not his heart.
     With degrees in astrophysics and molecular biology, Rollin had sold scientific equipment for two decades. But the pandemic dried up his business and his bank account. “You think this will never happen to you.” He smiled as we talked in a park. “But it can.”
      Rollin turned to traffic flagging until some guys stole his wallet and i.d.s, then he ended up huddled by a dumpster at night. It was ne...

September 07th, 2021

s     I knew Patti growing up - same little town, same little church - until time and geography separated us. Then I read that she’d become Dr. Patti Giebink, Planned Parenthood abortion provider, wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying an S&W 357 Magnum for security. By providing abortions, she wanted to protect women from back-alley procedures.
     But Patti’s done an about-face. Today she regrets providing abortions. Why? Partly because she says the cultural and medical landscapes hav...

Why Didn't I Listen to the Lorax?

Five decades ago a prophet name Lorax
foretold the future from the heart of his thorax.
He warned about greed in harvesting trees
and smog and pollution and coughs and a sneeze.
Now fifty years later we’re fighting the fires
and storms and mud slides that make our lives dire.
We’re mopping our brows from heat that consumes us
and wondering if all of this climate will doom us.
So why didn’t I listen to the Lorax back then?
What did he say to which I could attend?
I go to the words of the Lorax and S...

My Wabi-Sabi Pot

     I’m holding a pot crafted by my friend Chris, who was thrown off the wheel of life and lay on the ground like a lump of wet clay, her dreams, her marriage, her family, and her heart all broken.
     But that’s not the end of her story.
     Chris picked up each bit of damp clay and climbed back onto the potter’s wheel. It took years of work, sometimes letting go of pieces of her life, sometimes seeing pieces come together. Now she’s taken on a new shape, one she calls “wabi-sabi.” That...

When Dreams Collide with Reality

     Have you noticed that dreams don’t always come true?
     For example, I’ve yearned to see Stonehenge, that ancient circle of rock pillars in England, but the opportunity never arose. So Duane and I recently trekked to an American version - Carhenge.
     It’s a humorous imitation outside Alliance, Nebraska in the size, shape, and proportions of Stonehenge. Through “blood, sweat, and beers,” creator Jim Reinders says he and his family arranged thirty-nine vintage automobiles in a circl...

My Chest Is Unremarkable?

     It’s embarrassing, but a medical report recently declared that my chest is “unremarkable.”
     What an insult, except in this case, it was good news.
     That’s because “unremarkable” indicates no more cancer was detected through screening. Whew!
     This incident caused me to think about how insensitive medical terminology can be. For example, when I showed another doctor how easily my hands bruise, he said, “You won’t like this. It’s ‘senile purpura.’” No reason for alarm, he said....

We Watched Life Swept Away by the Current

     Duane and I marveled at the sight of a fledgling as it launched out of a cottonwood and wobbled through the air on its first flight. But then it landed in the nearby creek, flopping its baby wings frantically to escape. Duane hustled down to the water’s edge and reached in to rescue it, but the fast-moving current swept it downstream.
     Gone.
     Drowned.
     And I sobbed. Such a waste of a beautiful life that had only begun to fly. But it landed in a place it should never have gon...

Sanding Out Gouges in My Life

     When I was refinishing an old oak table recently I ran across a gouge left decades ago when one of our little girls was exploring that forks could be weapons. Could I sand it out? No, that would leave an ugly divot. Besides, the pockmark is part of the table’s history.
     I carry gouges in the tabletop of my life, too. I became aware of a particular one when Duane and I bought that table unfinished and I spent hours sanding it. The process of smoothing it raised some grain in my emo...

What Do Bono, Beyoncé, and I Have in Common?

s     What do Bono, Beyoncé, and I have in common?
     We are all one-name wonders. My moniker is “Grams,” which I’m especially proud of since my granddaughter Magdalene asked me to join her in a recital after I began teaching her autoharp. I gotta tell you, we rocked.
     In the recital’s printed program, I’m listed simply as “Grams.” This pleases me because grandparenting is a great calling, whether children are biological or informally “adopted” through friends or neighborhood. But our...

Welcoming Fred Home

     Duane and I just returned from the South helping our daughter Ashley, her husband Steve, and their children move. Pictured with me are Oak, Eve Juniper, and Ashley, along with a lamp named Fred that we delivered from our Colorado home.
     Why Fred? When Ashley was ten, she was heartsick after Duane felled a conifer in our yard that was being crowded out by other trees. So she and Duane created Fred from a branch of the tree, and the lamp illuminated her bedroom for years. Ashley has...