Tag: #redondobeach

Goodbye

Posted on August 15, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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

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

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

Saturday before the Saturday

Posted on February 12, 2022 by JANET L BARKER

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I know I’ve written about this topic before: Leaving. It has always been ridiculously hard for me, starting with my cousin Bevie leaving Spreckles Lane to go back home to San Carlos or Chicago. Leading up to, and following, her departure I would be… Continue Reading “Saturday before the Saturday”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #daughters, #grandbabies, #grandparenting, #grandparents, #hope, #ilovecalifornia, #love, #loveeverymoment, #newyork, #noom, #nyc, #redondobeach, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #therightpath

Pieces of the Puzzle

Posted on October 14, 2021 by JANET L BARKER

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Chapter One: The Little Girl My earliest memories: Mom, sitting at the sparkly canary yellow Formica kitchen table, smoking Pall Mall’s with her friend and next-door neighbor, Marian. I was about three. We had a calico cat named Penny, and a toad who lived… Continue Reading “Pieces of the Puzzle”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #1950s, #California, #education, #england, #grandparents, #grappenhall, #hope, #loveeverymoment, #memoir, #mothers, #postwar, #redondobeach, #retirement, #teaching, #truth

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

The Adjustment Phase

Posted on May 14, 2020 by JANET L BARKER

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This is me on Jet Blue flying over the Grand Canyon. It doesn’t look like it did three years ago on our Spring Break camping trip. It’s magnificent in a different, far-off way. To really appreciate the Canyon’s vast glory, you have to had… Continue Reading “The Adjustment Phase”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #beachlife, #blessings, #California, #daughters, #everymomentcounts, #giftfromthesea, #grandaughters, #gratitude, #hope, #jetblue, #newyork, #redondobeach, #teaching, family, love

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