Tag: #change

Live Like a Warrior

Posted on May 3, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

My microscope these days zooms in and out with the speed of my unsatiable van’s fuel tank. I feel everything. See everything. The blue jay that feeds from Monet’s dog bowl, the bushy tail of the red fox weaving in and out of the damp, Oregonesque fauna here… Continue Reading “Live Like a Warrior”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #bestlifeever, #betterdays, #California, #cambria, #camping, #change, #hope, #lifeizgood, #livelikeawarrior, #newlife, #peacelikeariver, #retirement, #vanlife

Don’t worry, be happy

Posted on January 30, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

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A public declaration of change is mighty. Expectations shatter the very ground. Will she fall in love? Will she enter the priesthood? Will she become a public figure representing the plight of American senior citizen women? Will she return to teaching? Will she become a… Continue Reading “Don’t worry, be happy”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #anewday, #California, #change, #dontworrybehappy, #education, #grandparents, #hope, #love, #loveeverymoment, #portofinohotel, #redondobeach, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #teachers

Room Service

Posted on December 23, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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Learning to say yes instead of oh-no. This is my lesson for today as Christmas Day festivities avalanche my plans, causing me and thousands of travelers who’ve had to wait-out the storm to make lemonade out of lemons. My beloved van. Fixed. Maybe. When I picked her… Continue Reading “Room Service”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #California, #change, #changeisgood, #christmas, #education, #grandparents, #hope, #love, #loveeverymoment, #portofinohotel, #redondobeach, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #teachers, #teaching, #thecrown, #vanlife

Hiraeth

Posted on December 12, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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It’s a Welsh word that means longing or a sense of homesickness. One of my niece’s Malibu neighbors, who is Welsh, nodded his head while we walked and talked one brisk, Starbucks-armed morning. Gazing at the newly greened hillside, he shared, “I’m feeling it… Continue Reading “Hiraeth”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #change, #christmas, #education, #grandparents, #holidayseason, #hope, #llbehomeforchristmas, #love, #loveeverymoment, #malibu, #melancholy, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #teachers, #teaching, #welsh, #winter

A Gulp of Sea

Posted on December 8, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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Nature is my healer. I feel such peace, such love and acceptance when I am enveloped by the ever-changing grandeur and gentleness of Nature. I’m sitting at a picnic table overlooking Encinal Canyon in Malibu. Monet is sleeping, snoring, by my feet. The clouds are… Continue Reading “A Gulp of Sea”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #anewlife, #California, #cattledoglove, #cattledogs, #change, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeontheroad, #love, #loveeverymoment, #malibu, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #teachers, #teaching, #vwcampervan

Goodbye

Posted on August 15, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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I’ve saved the hardest until last. I’ve junked and stored, celebrated and cried. I’ve doubted and been certain. I’ve had my rounds (and rounds) (and rounds) of Lasts: last time I watered, last time I slept in a proper bed, last time I took… Continue Reading “Goodbye”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #change, #faith, #grandchildren, #grandparents, #homevshouse, #hope, #legacy, #newbeginning, #redondobeach, #retiredteacher, #sellingthefamilyhome, #thenextchapter, #thisisthefirstdayofmylife, #writers, #writing

For Good

Posted on July 31, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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“We’re going to miss you. You may not be aware, but you’ve been an asset to your neighbors, and the neighborhood,” a fellow former teacher, neighbor and parent to former student, Cole, told me the other day. He’s 23 now. An assistant superintendent at… Continue Reading “For Good”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #blessed, #California, #change, #education, #forgood, #grandparents, #hope, #love, #loveeverymoment, #moving, #newbeginning, #RBUSD, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #sellingthefamilyhome, #teachers, #wicked

Feeling the feelings

Posted on July 13, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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It’s been hard for me to write. It’s been hard for me to talk. It’s been hard for me to breathe. It’s been hard for me to put one foot in front of the other, knowing that everything is about to change; accepting, crying, laughing, my… Continue Reading “Feeling the feelings”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #change, #grandparents, #historichomes, #home, #hope, #jumpandtheparachutewillappear, #love, #parenting, #parents, #peace, #redondobeach, #retirededucator, #retiredteacher, #selliingthefamilyhome

There is a season

Posted on March 14, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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I went to church on Sunday for the first time in many, many years. Not everything is as I remembered. Services don’t take place inside the 100+-year-old white church steeple sanctuary, rather they are held in the 1960s-built Parish Hall and outside in the… Continue Reading “There is a season”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #change, #christepiscopalchurchrb, #episcopal, #faith, #friendship, #grandparent, #hope, #lent, #loveeverymoment, #prayer, #redondobeach, #retirement

It’s been a long time since I …

Posted on February 23, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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…woke up at 4 a.m. and started writing. No deadline. No subject matter in particular. Just the rumblings of life. Maybe it’s the wind. There’s a turbulence, a change, a danger lurking in the moon-lit, cloud-filled sky. Something new. Something old. Are the raccoons… Continue Reading “It’s been a long time since I …”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #bestfriends, #California, #change, #cousins, #grandparent, #grandparenting, #hope, #legacy, #love, #loveeverymoment, #moving, #parenting, #prayer, #redondobeach, #retirement, #sisters

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