Unfiltered Reflections – The Ardent Halo

What is Love?

It’s a 1993 song by Haddaway, and love is nothing if it does not hurt. But it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Love must never be forgotten. This is Love is a podcast series hosted by Phoebe Judge. It’s a touching series striking at various kinds ofContinue reading “What is Love?”

Disarming Contempt

My husband asked me the other day why I had not been adding to my blog. No new content since last February. I told him I felt like everything I was seeing and feeling was negative and I was waiting for some positivity to arise. But I don’t know if one can just wait. Sure,Continue reading “Disarming Contempt”

Bring in the Year of the Ox

The bells have tolled around the world. The new year arrived. Away with 2020, the cycle of a bursting pandemic, social unrest, and an unruly presidential election. We may curse that year in tongue, and the memes will follow for cycles. Those 366 days are behind us though not gone, but their passage exposed theContinue reading “Bring in the Year of the Ox”

Waging a War against Crickets

Writing connects my thoughts to our world, a process to consider the subtle grains of society, to weigh the truths and sum the implications. But the process isn’t compulsory; I finished my first book before I realized its theme, realized how I viewed the surrounding landscape. And that moment came in 2012, capturing me, controllingContinue reading “Waging a War against Crickets”

We Come as You Are

The Covid-19 shutdown and impact to the economy has roughed us up. Add in some rioting, wildfires, and a presidential election, and 2021 can’t come fast enough. But the dismal truth is the drama will not end when the clock tolls 12:00 AM on January 1st. Normal is now social unrest, quarantines, and zoom. BecauseContinue reading “We Come as You Are”

The Enemy Within

We are being manipulated. You. Me. Our emotions. Our nation. Regardless of whether you rally behind the Black Lives Matter movement or Back the Blue Line. We are soldiers in a civil war between the right and left, components of the political machine. One side is drawing upon your disgust for recent events, fanning theContinue reading “The Enemy Within”

Going the Extra Mile, Day after Day

As a distance runner since high school, I am partial to the individual sports where each person competes and whose performance may or may not contribute to a team score like wrestling, cross-country, and swimming. There is a lot to be said for the individual, the work ethics, the drive to face challenges alone, uncelebratedContinue reading “Going the Extra Mile, Day after Day”

Standing on the Outside

For the last year, I have been frustrated, spilling tears between periods of indifference. Over three years ago, my sons and I moved to a small town in southern Oregon. My husband transitioned twenty months later after returning from a duty assignment in the Congo and retiring from the military. In those years, I invitedContinue reading “Standing on the Outside”

Pleasure and Pain

I just finished Brian Staveley’s third and final installment of CHRONICLES OF THE UNHEWN THRONE. I’ve been reading about a book a year, and with my hectic schedule, it took me a few months to get through the last one. Staveley’s writing is poetic and imaginative. The story is engaging, adventurous, and epic, and IContinue reading “Pleasure and Pain”