The Heart of My Soul is a collection of family vignettes, snippets from cabin journals and guest books, individual reflections on changing times and aging, photo collages, published articles, short poems, and a Haiku covering outhouse etiquette! Each generation added wit, hard-work, and continues to carry on stewardship of “our little piece of heaven.” Each time the screen door screaks, a new adventure is about to begin or a memory has just been made.
My parents named me Janet. I call myself Jan. My Spanish-speaking friends call me Juanita. These stories and photos represent my duo-life, a bilingual journey, a multi-dimensional world view.
In the north, meteorologists have added “wind chill” to their weather reports. They elongate their updates with “the temperature feels like” and “polar winds” coming ...
Illinois used to be a lot further away from northern Wisconsin than it is today. “Consider the roads,” Charles began. “Today’s expressways were once two-lane ...
Tick, tock. Tick, tock. The battery run wall clock faithfully pulses time through the cabin’s interior. At this moment, it is working its melodic tick, ...
Monarchs. Those butterflies with royal orange and black patterned wings that flit into northern life every spring and hasten to return south before the freeze. Monarchs. A story of metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to a being that takes flight – a metaphor of life, death and resurrection. Monarchs. Their rare migration requiring four generations to complete the life cycle that perpetuates their survival, unique among planetary creatures.