Barbara Swander Miller


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

Honoring the journey—then and now

  • Chasing our Quaker ancestors from a log cabin in the woods

    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…

  • A celebration of the muumuu

    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.…

  • Homemade jam, anyone?

    It shouldn’t be this hard for a teacher! I can read, right? How did my ancestors, or even my mother do it? Making jam shouldn’t be such a challenge! Spring arrived and suddenly I was surrounded by friends who were sharing their plans for planting, canning, and freeze-drying their produce just as I was beginning to…

  • Together we grow

    To my journaling educator friends We met, a pod of varied ages, values, upbringings, expectations and expertise. But all who spend our days  hoping to ignite a spark in others. We gather according to the calendar  to read and listen, to chuckle and giggle, to sigh and frown, but mostly to write– or draw or…

  • 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…

Barbara Swander Miller

Honoring the journey in everyday life

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