Kelly Learns
A compilation of my columns from the Sunday issues of the Daily Courier, Prescott, Arizona.
I’ve been writing an every-other Sunday column for the Daily Courier in Prescott, AZ since late 2020, thanks to the kind encouragement of long-time columnist Ron Barnes, who spent over 30 years contributing his wisdom not only to the newspaper but to many other people and organizations in the Prescott area. He put in some good words to the publisher and editor for me when he decided to retire from column writing. It’s one of those gifts you never knew you wanted and then realize how grateful you are to have it.
The Daily Courier has exclusive rights to my column for 60 days after publication, which is why you might be reading a Christmas column in February. I love writing but seem to need a project and deadline to do it. Hopefully this blog will inspire me to write more. Thanks for stopping by to check out my site!
Kindfulness
I was poking through a local store with my niece and her boyfriend a couple weekends ago while they were visiting between Christmas and New Year’s. They got into a lively debate over the relative merits of the Squishmallow collection on the shelves nearby. “They’re not real Squishmallows, but they’re still pretty cool,” she explained to me, as I nodded, pretending to understand. You’ve probably seen these oversized, colorful stuffed toys in stores around town. They range in size from tiny enough to fit in your pocket to so big you’d need to strap it in the passenger seat to get it home. Some of them look like animals and some of them look like food. I don’t understand why anyone would want a giant stuffed blueberry pancake with a face on it, but I’m also sure I’m not the target market. I...
We should really talk about it
It’s the nature of my job in hospice that many people I meet are in the middle of an urgent health crisis. Someone they love has reached a critical point, and now they have to figure out what happens next. Sometimes it’s an unexpected terminal diagnosis with a...
Oh deer
I have no scientific data to back this up, but this year it feels like there’s more of every type of animal in our neighborhood. The other day I had to stop jogging while two flocks of turkeys with their babies crossed the street to continue eating their fill of...
Opportunity knocks
Two years ago, I was sitting with a few of my coworkers in Ron Barnes’ living room for the first time. He wanted to talk through an idea he had for his farewell column in the Daily Courier about the hospice services he was receiving and what the care meant to him....
Take a walk with me
We all have traditions that we keep, like making green bean casserole at Thanksgiving dinner, even though no one seems to enjoy it enough to serve it any other time of the year. Some traditions we continue because they are meaningful and personal. Every year since we...
Bluebird of happiness
When I was a kid, I spent a week each summer at a Campfire camp in Boone, Iowa. Sunday was check-in day, and we’d run around taking swim tests, signing up for crafts, and making friends with the kids in our cabin, followed by supper in the big lodge and what seemed to...
A Covid vacation
It could have been the bowling alley. I always wonder if they ever clean the finger holes of bowling balls. Or maybe the Italian restaurant, packed on a Sunday night, everyone laughing and talking as they passed around breadsticks and slurped spaghetti. I’d been a lot...
Last accordion repair shop
This week, I met a recent Prescott transplant who repairs clocks for a living. He seemed younger than I expected someone with that job to be, so I asked him how he happened to choose clock repair as a career. Turns out he’s a third-generation, a skill passed down from...
Dog years
We knew we were on borrowed time. There’s an unwritten agreement when you take a dog into your home, someday they will break your heart. If you’re lucky, like we were, you’ll get almost 14 years of joy as part of the deal. Chipper was two when we adopted him. I was...
Light years away
The opening scene of the 1997 movie “Contact” popped in my head while clicking through the imagery sent back from the James Webb Space Telescope this week. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s worth looking up the three-minute opening scene on the Internet. Starting...
A grand idea
It’s been five years since I grasped the metal handrails at Mather Point and stared at the vast canyon rippling out across the horizon. The first years we lived here, we were amateur tour guides to friends checking out our new home in Arizona and wanting to see the...
It’s a dry heat
Maybe we didn’t think it through when we decided to take a vacation finally and booked a few days at a rental house near Tubac. I looked at the weather map before we left and saw Thursday’s projected high was 108 degrees. It may be a dry heat, but that’s still pretty...