Knee Deep

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well,don’t follow the lines in that poem or you may come up empty handed this gardening season. Underneath that soil, there's a lot that is not contrary at all, and a lot of hard work we don't see that reaps a harvest of a lasting and special kind.  

What we see in our life here on earth are but smallsnapshots of the greater vision that God has planned for us. We can look into each other’s eyes, but the bigger picture of the depths of our souls and character are known only by the One who made us. My father, 102, is seeing the bigger picture now and although still spunky and sometimes talkative, often looks past me, towards a new and beautiful...

They are among the least, the lost and the lonely – those puppets propped up at local car washes. They are supposedly there for children, but the looks on their faces tell another story. We grown-ups may be the only upper hand they have in this world, but with a steady line of clear coats and tire shines waiting, reaching out to save them may be a wash…

We officially kick off the new green and greenery of the season when our seasonal pet mallards, Maude and Claude drop in like a couple of duck bombs out of nowhere. They are like long lost relatives that remind us that, regardless of the duck bills and paddle feet, we are just who we are, part of a long line of stories building to a legacy.

You are seeking something aren't you? What is it? A person you miss, a goal left unmet? Around there are signs all around you in the woods that may point to answers, to friends at a picnic, to goodnight kisses and flowers that are ready to bloom in the Spring...

Winter sits heavy like a spoon mired in oatmeal, unmoving,bland and monotonous. For those of us in the middle, in the midst of our drift, we approach the drudgery of winter as if we may have to eat oatmeal for months. Eventually, we begin to reflect, renew our senses, and pay homage to the season. We can embrace a vision here and there, take on a forgotten dream, and let the songbirds at the feede...

Be careful where you wave your hand. In an attempt to create an antiseptic experience, we have abdicated the public restroom and replaced it with a giant motion detector that controls us like a Jetson cartoon. Perhaps we should wash our hands of all modern appliances, leave them for the younger generation and use the Port-o-Potty down the street.

We are coming down on the side of so what, a side where apathy and awareness are mixed in a blender and drunk like a protein shake. It’s a side we all may all be seeking – we just don’t know it yet...

Fires. Loss. Desperation. The onion we call life has peeled back another pungent layer that makes our eyes water. The faces we see in California are in pain, and our land is ablaze. It is our country we watch, and perhaps we recognize in each face something we recognize in our own.

During this last ice storm, I lost some of my desire to plummet down a ski slope at breakneck speed, and zoom into a rustic log cabin wrapped in a bright cellophane outfit. That is because I recently had a front row seat to a real-life, amazing assault on Mt. Everest, right here at home.

When we map out the new year of 2025, it helps to make some concrete decisions about what we believe in. Will we allow life to impose its will on us or will we be the captain of our ship this year? At the end of the day, will we look back and see that we let our destiny slip away as we waited for a lucky strike? With a brand-new beginning in front of us, its a golden opportunity to lean into somet...

It was just a few days before Christmas and I was surrounded by thousands of other spectators at my first NFL football game. However, the last second field goals and end zone dances all paled by comparison when a special audible was called by our Quarterback at the end of the game.    

Hummmmm♪♪♪ “And so this is Christmas, and what have you made? Another huge pancake, fills up the whole plate.” …not exactly John Lennon, but I think he’d agree on this one. Pancakes warm the world over like a huge blanket on Christmas morning. I get my fifteen minutes of fame in the kitchen every Christmas day and serve up my own version of griddlecakes for the betterment of all mankind... and gru...

The holiday season is creeping up on us like the second hand in a scary movie. No one hears the ticking until the camera zooms in on the Gothic clock and the last few seconds tick off in slow motion. Will we make it out of the holiday twilight zone before the clock strikes twelve? That all depends on what aisle in the grocery store you make your move.

Toys change when they fall in the hands of a kid also because kids think like smaller versions of the toy inventor. My brother and I were no exceptions. We quickly bored of our new toys on Christmas morning, which offered irresistible, if not disturbing possibilities. However, someone unexpected became the queen toy inventor for the day.

Whatever dish you are adding to the mix at the table may fall flat if bad manners are oozing off the edges. Time to ramp up the etiquette and leave our Viking nature at the door. Gratefulness has lots of looks and one of them is table manners!

A truck that is about to fall apart, the blankness of a highway, a horizon that never stop. The definition of dullness takes on a new meaning, and it wasn’t “pumpkin.” With loneliness comes introspection, and when my highway fog had pierced the core of my rudeness, whatever I thought was so gol-danged important about Mr. Pumpkin, in the end, did not hold a candle to the welcoming place I found on...

One of the great mysteries in the archives of Knee Deep history is the true identity of Mr. Pumpkin. As a leader of Pumpkin Nation, he appears to have set up housekeeping in a small diner in Montana on the Continental Divide, where a unifying magic is baked into every slice of completely neutral pumpkin pie.

The week brought all of us a new president, but the American flew even higher as my father turned 102 years old. His legacy lies sin his lifetime of service and a deep gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy in our country. Happy Birthday, and many more, Dad!

What do the words Anonymous, New England Breeze and Market Kiwi have in common? Almost nothing as it turns out – unless you are trying to pick a paint color from the encyclopedic swatches at your local paint store. How are all those colors named, anyway? (And how do you land that job?) When I went searching for the right color to paint our back porch, I uncovered some dodgy names – some with nefar...

We were told growing up that subjects like politics and religion were off limits in polite conversations, especially around voting time. Jell-O salad, a much more pliable topic at our house, nonetheless came out of the same mold it always had, and no election was going to change that.

Emily Dickinson said, “I am out with lanterns looking for myself.” Hopefully, we let the light shine on the areas that reveal the real us and keep the other wild animals in their cages. If and when that lantern dims, we need others to ask us, “Do I Know You?” We may ourselves be the ones that are surprised when we reappear.  

Craziness, chaos and crisis, or levity and lightness? Where are we headed in the swarm? Perhaps, like me, a simple summer memory will inspire you to step away from the madness of the world and regain your buzzzzzz...

As Dora gains a national platform on the radio, the famed Dr. Adcock reveals Dora’s source of ignorant calories, a cosmic source that awakens Dora to the realization that her life at Trendy-Mart may be a lot more significant and…weighty… than her unremarkable diet.

Apparently, everywhere around us there are unusual sources of energy are finding ways into our bodies. In this episode, a desperate young lady, Dora, may have discovered a way to control her diet in ways you will not believe.