Memory Highlights of My Life

The smell of rain coming across the prairie

Standing in the sun and rain in the end of a rainbow

The song of the elusive whippoorwills at dusk

Feeling the timelessness of prairie grass undulating in the wind

Listening to the frost as it forms in the early morning dark stillness

Sitting under an Oregon fir tree listening to the stillness of the snowfall

My mother never telling me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl.

Standing in the middle of a Monarch migration

The silence and crackle of walking on dry leaves in a dry creek bed in the fall

Sunrise from the bluff above Crooked River

Not having to know all the answers

Accidentally wandering into the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in live rehearsal during a 2 hour bus layover in Salt Lake City.

A magical moment of holding eternity in the palm of my hand

A Miami full moon

The hush that fell on a raucous crowd when I sang “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”

Watching a young Italian man honor an aging American vet who had landed at Anzio. Chicago bus station

Being strong enough to cry; to kneel; to see thru the eyes of a child

Listening to the music of the universe as the wind blows thru tall fir trees

Absorbing and being absorbed by the primeval serenity of a rain forest in the Pacific Northwest

The haunting siren call of the migrating Canadian geese that wake me in the middle of the night.

Being dazzled by the brilliant flash of fall sumac as I walk up over a hill.

Looking deep into the eyes of a loved one and seeing a piece of my eternity dwelling there….

Experiencing “the peace that passeth understanding”

The sound of my voice bouncing off Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. from the big outdoor speakers as I sang the last line of “Una Paloma Blanca – “No one can take my freedom away.”

Sitting under the almost reachable stars on a west Texas night

The angelic laugh of a sleeping baby.

Being named to the Oklahoma All-State Drama Cast in 1956 doing the role of Shaw’s “St. Joan” trial scene.

The feel of a gentle breeze on my skin.

The peace that comes over me when rocking a baby.

The wild flowers my son picked for me before he was tall enough to look down into my eyes.

Tranquility spreading over me on a catamaran gliding across 
open sea with the engines dead and the sail up erasing the boundary between earth and heaven.