Tag: #grandparent

There is a season

Posted on March 14, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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

Writing is Prayer

Posted on February 17, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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Some people kneel. Some people chant and sing. Some people bow their heads and cup their hands. To me, writing is prayer. It’s the way I connect. It’s the way I listen. It’s the way I distract my mind with lists and events and… Continue Reading “Writing is Prayer”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #annefrank, #cambria, #change, #faith, #grandparent, #hope, #love, #loveeverymoment, #prayer, #redondobeach, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #teaching, #writing, #writingisprayer

Autumn River

Posted on October 30, 2021 by JANET L BARKER

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May the peace that transcends all understanding pass through you. Words to this effect, or maybe precisely these words, concluded our Sunday service at Christ Episcopal Church in Redondo Beach, a congregation I was “led” to after my mother died of emphysema in 1981. As she… Continue Reading “Autumn River”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #395, #California, #camping, #cherisheachday, #christepiscopalchurch, #convictlake, #easternsierras, #eurovancamper, #grace, #grandparent, #hope, #ilovecalifornia, #loveeverymoment, #loveiskind, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #stmargaretepiscopalchurch, #transcendence

Grey skies are fine with me

Posted on July 24, 2021 by JANET L BARKER

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The South Bay’s June gloom has extended into July, which is just fine with me considering everything east of Hawthorne Boulevard is baking. I really prefer chill. Not too much, but short sleeves, cozy socks, red wine vs. white, 72 degree cloudy sky pie,… Continue Reading “Grey skies are fine with me”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #2021TokyoOlympics, #actthree, #faith, #grandparent, #grandparenting, #nextchapter, #olympics, #parenting, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #southbay, #southerncalifornia

Tick, Tick, Tick

Posted on May 30, 2021 by JANET L BARKER

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It just isn’t right. It’s been almost two months since I last wrote. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about you. I have. But, I have to be blunt and honest, you haven’t been my priority. Here’s what I have done instead: Been… Continue Reading “Tick, Tick, Tick”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #Californiaeducator, #faith, #grandma, #grandparent, #I'mgoingtodisneyland!, #middleschoolteacher, #redondobeach, #retirededucator, #retiredmom, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #ruhs, #writer

Waiting for my real life to begin

Posted on March 25, 2021 by JANET L BARKER

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Thanks Colin Hay for the song. It expresses what I’m experiencing better than anything I can write: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRO66I22qi0 Waiting for My Real Life by Colin Hay Any minute now, my ship is coming inI’ll keep checking the horizonI’ll stand on the bowFeel the waves… Continue Reading “Waiting for my real life to begin”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #colinhay, #faith, #grandparent, #hope, #lifeizgood, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #teaching, #waitingformyreallife

retraction, expansion

Posted on January 17, 2021 by JANET L BARKER

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I don’t know if it is the hot, Southern California January weather or exhaustion from the last four years of constant havoc, or anticipation of a new, hopeful president and Vice President, or the fact that I submitted my retirement paperwork a few days… Continue Reading “retraction, expansion”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #boisset, #budget, #covid, #education, #grandparent, #health, #joebiden, #minimalism, #newstart, #retirement, #southerncalifornia, #teaching, #wine

FIZZY DRINKS AND FRENCH BREAD

Posted on July 10, 2020 by JANET L BARKER

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Sweet, sweet summer. Not the same as the last. But sweet. Not working wardrobe-pajamas, but hanging out and gardening pjs. Purposeful, summer-tossed bleached hair. Nonchalant late teeth-brushing. Patience of a naturalist’s eagerness to identify squirrel A (big Mama) from wiry squirrel B (Terrorizing Ted).… Continue Reading “FIZZY DRINKS AND FRENCH BREAD”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #blacklivesmatter, #boissetwine, #californiadreaming, #familymatters, #gardening, #grandparent, #hope, #loveeverymoment, #nyc, #positivevibes, #summerofcovid

B0ngos on the balcony

Posted on May 3, 2020 by JANET L BARKER

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Mom used to joke with us (sort of) when she was about to lose it, that she had bats in the belfry. I can understand this expression because the guy upstairs, right above where I’m typing, is “playing” the bongo. He think’s he’s good.… Continue Reading “B0ngos on the balcony”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #boissetwine, #coronavirus19, #education, #grandparent, #hope, #loveeverymoment, #newyork, #teacher

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