Barbara Swander Miller
Honoring the journey in everyday life
Category: Uncategorized
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It’s back to school time! Surely, you’ve noticed. Parents and caregivers navigate the seasonal aisles of their favorite department store, list in hand, squinting at packages as they try to find the proper-sized ruled paper and colored binders. Teachers elbow out other customers as they overload their shopping carts with composition books, multi-packs of scissors,…
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Giving blood was always a thing for some of my family. My grandpa belonged to the hundred gallon club. My mom did, too. Okay, my brother says it couldn’t possibly be a “hundred gallons.” Ten gallons maybe? Every chance they had, they went to Ball Memorial Hospital in our hometown to give blood. Following suit,…
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After spending a year as a retired high school English teacher, I just returned to my former high school to participate in the commencement ceremony at the invitation of a graduating senior. It’s an honor to be asked and part of a lovely tradition that allows seniors to choose a staff member to hand them…
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It was beginning to seem like a game of tag… to find out as much as possible about my three times great aunt, Mary Jane Edwards who went South with her sister Lizzie– my three times great grandmother– to teach freedmen right after the Civil War. And it was filled with stops and starts, dashes, and…
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The closest I could come to the muumuu of my aging hippie friend was a Chambray dress hidden on the clearance rack at Walmart. Prefaded, loose and long. As I wriggled my arms inside its buttery fabric and let it fall over my head, it granted me instant permission to be free. Free from importance.…
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Suddenly, now that I have time to think, things aren’t the same anymore. Suddenly, things that were factual, aren’t. Or things that were fringe are mainstream. Case in point: Pangea. “No, of course the continents were never all hooked together,” my fifth grade teacher snorted. Even though we looked at a map and could see the…
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“You can do anything” rang through my ears when I was growing up. It wasn’t true. I knew I’d never be a ballerina. But then… I never wanted to be. “You’re just like your mother and your grandmother,” my dad would exclaim in wonder. “Anything you try, you can do.” Maybe there was some truth …
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Gasping to get a breath, shaking, howling. It’s quite a temper tantrum for this late at night. Or is it? Maybe she’s afraid from the thunderstorm and can’t tell me. Or maybe it’s trauma from her previous life. We heard she was abused. My husband says maybe she just wants attention. To have someone near…
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As I marched along the path that morning, my mind was cluttered with anxiety. The hikers’ trail that runs partially along our town’s small, winding river was surrounded by new life, but I didn’t notice. A lot was on my mind: three teenagers at two different schools, two younger ones at the district where I…
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Taking a master gardener class with a forty-hour volunteer requirement in the midst of the pandemic. Spending a week on a retreat where no one is allowed to speak. Going to a hair salon school to have my hair highlighted and my nails painted by recent high school students. My younger sister is always pushing…
