Barbara Swander Miller


A Writer’s Life | Domestic Life | Education | Faith | Historical Fiction | Memoir | Podcast | Poetry | Retired Life | Travel

Honoring the journey—then and now

  • The Coelacanth Still Scares Me

    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…

  • Keeping Score

    “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 …

  • The Dog Days of Spring?

    The Dog Days of Spring?

    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…

  • Use the Current

    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…

  • Is it yours to do?

    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…

  • It’s Still a Quandary

    Should I say something? Or just keep my mouth shut and stay in my lane? This is the dilemma for some of us teacher types. Or those of us with justice issues. For most of my life, it’s been one of my challenges, sometimes, much to the dismay of my family and friends. In fifth…

  • Making your writing real

    What’s your strategy? Call me old school. I have gray hair. I can accept that tag without too much fuss. I never fell into the rabbit hole of video games or TikToking that sucks and slurps the gray matter right out of some folks’ heads and dissolves hours from their lives. So visual learning or…

  • Processing

    Finally, it’s too much. I can’t even scribble a bullet-pointed list of events. To remember. To grieve. To honor those who emerged from outside my world. My heart is full, but my head is numb, reconciling what was with what is and how I now think I know the truth and its many shades.

  • Building academic success in a test-heavy, AI world

    For many years,  I took my sophomores to our local university library during their research unit. They entered, awed at the four stories of books available to them as they begin their academic writing careers.  By the time they finished their instruction session and research scavenger hunt, they became intimate with databases, the electronic card catalog, academic…

  • I Am Called

    Toes ever edging toward the labyrinth, I am called to tread its ancient spiral. Kicking my sandals with their daily dust aside, I hear the winding, brick-lined path beckon me closer, closer to my spirit… … and that of God, residing in my journey inward. Barbara Swander Miller June 23, 2023 Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center

Barbara Swander Miller

Honoring the journey in everyday life

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