So… where were we with this poetry series? Those of you who have followed me for awhile might recognize it. A few years back, I tapped into my rhyming writer origins and penned a big poem (consisting of a lot of smaller poems, really) about the various evil ways wars have ended innocent human lives. I enjoyed posting it in small installments, but then came 2020. Given all the challenges chucked at… Read More

April 21, 1918. It’s a cold, clammy day, enveloped in billowing gray clouds. A scarlet triplane, marked with bold black crosses, hurdles towards the trench-scarred, soupy mud of Europe. The engine coughs and sputters. Men on the ground – battle-tested members of the Australian Imperial Troops – watch in slack-jawed horror as the machine drifts closer and closer to their works. It impacts hard, with a crash of splitting wood and snapping… Read More

Is it me, or are bridges kind of fantastic? I don’t mean the concrete behemoth interstate overpasses, which are marvels of engineering, but not always the prettiest to look at. I mean the charming, rusty, old-fashioned bridges on the much quieter highways. Bridges over bubbling streams, shaded by lush, whispering trees. Covered bridges with leaning sheds and calendar-worthy photo ops. Bridges that have passed out of history but not our hearts. It’s… Read More

I stood at the bottom of an open trench, the trees looming above me. When I popped my head up, I saw a wide open field through the grove. If an army was coming at me, it would have been a clear shot. There were no hills, no trees, no ditches. Not even a dip in the earth for attackers to hide in. Yet I would have been virtually untouchable, fully protected… Read More

During these Covid days of no travel, which I have great hopes will end very soon, I have taken great pleasure in the many memories my husband and I have of our travels around the globe. Of these memories, perhaps none stand out more than Fiji.  We went there for our honeymoon in 2015. We had toyed with many places to go for this special trip, even considering a train ride across… Read More

About a month ago, my husband and I left the sunny shores of California and returned to the Midwest. While I adored my time on the West Coast (read about it here) there were some things I really missed there – especially thunderstorms. My fascination with stormy weather developed early, and I’ve spent a good portion of my life poking through meteorology and physics books. While we got the occasional lightning crackle… Read More

NOTE: The following post is a bit different than my typical pieces here. You won’t find any talk about war, which is just crazy! 🙂 However, my husband and I are packing up to leave California and start a new chapter in our lives. Our personal histories are important too, and I wanted to pay a bit of tribute to that big step and give California a proper farewell salute. I hope you… Read More

I’m afraid. Two words a lot of us don’t like to mention, at least not out loud. And certainly not in front of people we’re trying to impress. Honestly, I think that’s what a lot of the madness boils down to these days. We’re all very afraid. And while some of us can hide our fears, lay them away, or at least pretend they don’t exist, sometimes, it’s not so easy. Sometimes,… Read More

Welcome back from the Holidays! It certainly looked different for the M.B. Henry household this year, with Covid keeping us from our usual travels and family visits. We had little to do but watch Christmas movies, and I also cooked us a nice big meal on Christmas Eve. But the change of pace also allowed us some time to reflect. On our futures, since next Christmas, we will be living in a… Read More

It’s a tale as old as time – or at least as old as the Great War. In 1914, on a frigid Christmas Eve in the middle of trench-scarred Western Europe, two warring armies took a time-out from lobbing shells and bullets at one another to light Christmas trees and sing carols together. A few of them exchanged gifts and photographs. Some soccer games with less deadly consequences than battles broke out…. Read More