It was midnight and I was hitchhiking home to California on Interstate-5. A trucker stopped to pick me up. A trucker with a daughter my age. On the drive south, he said he’d take me all the way to the California bay area, but he encouraged me to return to school.
Photo by Sneaky Head on Unsplash
A friend recently threw out a challenge to take a 24-hour rest from all screens—phones, computers, TVs. And it was enlightening to discover my most challenging aspect of screen dependency.
Photo by Thai Nguyen on Unsplash
You may be tempted to think this blog is about how much I enjoy tea. And reading. And being home. I mean, just because I’ve included some of my favorite quotes about these things—that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. By the way, have you heard this one by C.S. Lewis?
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.
Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash
Dan and I have been grandparents-in-training for several years. I doubt that he’s made any colossal mistakes along the way like I have.
Three grandkids missing from this photo
I’ve never learned to like the bitter taste of coffee. I love the smell, but the taste, um, not so much. I mean, every once in a while I’ll have a little coffee with my cream and sugar.
Until.
Until our latest adventure in Puerto Rico. My son and daughter-in-law took us to breakfast one morning. DIL ordered a mocha, which turned out to be a cup dipped in Nutella and then plunged into Oreo cookie crumbs. The lovely pink mug was then filled with the chocolatey-coffee beverage, and a creamy heart was painted on top.
We just spent a week in paradise—a small island in the tropics where my son and daughter-in-law live, also known as Puerto Rico.
So much tropical greenery, sandy beaches that rim the island, beautiful old structures, and delicious food. And of course the best of it was spending time with son and DIL.
In her book, Celebrate Every Day, Shauna Niequist wrote:
I will confess that sometimes I want what Mary had: I want an angel, and I want an assignment. I want can’t-miss-it clarity, a special purpose, the certainty that I’m on the right path, doing the right thing, and that it matters.
Photo by Dan Kiefer on Unsplash
Dan and I love dogs, but we’re gone from home too frequently to keep a pet of our own. Which means we need our ‘dog fix’ from time to time.
Mellie, a purebred mid-sized Labradoodle
We hiked every day, even on the couple of intermittent-rain days. The reward for putting up with the wetness was a dusting of snow on the mountains the next day. Dan dragged me out of bed before sunrise—twice—so we could catch the alpenglow. If you’ve never seen pink frosting on a mountaintop, you need to get out more.
Copyright © 2025 Marlys Johnson
