On the Opening of Doors
The first time I saw a Dutch door I was a young mother on vacation with my husband and his family. We stayed at a cute little cottage near the…
Shelli is an advocacy writer and creative writing teacher. She loves to spend time with her husband (usually in the garden) and their four almost adult children. She also loves to sew (usually for the local community theater), to read, to write, and to drag her family outside to look at the sky. Shelli is passionate about poetry, Broadway show tunes, and telling stories -- of ourselves, our families, and our communities.
The Goldfish
It is the small things really. The sudden realization that I am alone in a house that is usually filled to the brim with comings and goings, with long teenage…
On Red Rocks, Rivers, and Ravines
Once, on a writer’s retreat to a desert in south-central Utah, I was caught in an unexpected downpour while standing on a red rock ridge high above a green grass…
Conversations on a City Bus
The woman was older, but in a way that spoke more of experience and enthusiasm and vibrant life than of age, really, her gray hair swept back from her face…
On Excuses from My Students
What no one tells you when you begin to teach is that probably the most effective teaching you will do will be in that little sliver of time before and…
How to Crochet a Coral Reef
It started with an idea. A problem really. One with no easy solution. So what do you do? You get creative. The problem? A growing number of coral reefs around…
On the Gum Stuck to the Bottom of my Shoe
“The world is full of obvious things, which no one by chance ever observed” —Sherlock Holmes On Sunday evenings, my family goes for a walk. I am not sure when…
On the Abundance of Tomatoes
I’ve been thinking about tomatoes. Not the uniformly red tomatoes of about the same size and shape that you can buy in the produce aisle at your local grocery store.…
On Desks
The desk in my room is the perfect height to lean your elbows on and ponder the world outside the picture window it sits in front of—to watch the row…
Lessons From a 1960s Folk Song
In 1964, on the album Wednesday Morning, 3AM, the Simon and Garfunkel song, The Sound of Silence, made its debut. It wasn’t the song as we know it today, a…