As humans, we often seek and find refuge in a multitude of places. Our bodies, minds, and hearts require opportunities for retreat from life’s harsh realities, regardless of how accustomed we become to it’s difficulties and fragility. Emotional refuge, specifically, is something that we all need and seek on some level. Some may find itContinue reading “Finding Refuge…”
Author Archives: Jeanie Stephens
Good night, stranger…
Last night as I lay in bed dreaming of you, I ran my own hand over my bare shoulder and down my arm as some sort of telepathic experiment in which I imagined that you could feel me….because you are me. Or maybe, you reside in me…..because you’re always somehow with me….on my travels, duringContinue reading “Good night, stranger…”
Messages from the Universe
Heart broken and needing to shut myself off from the world, I walked around Gray’s Lake in Des Moines just before Labor Day 2021. As I passed baby catamarans docked on the shoreline, a man passed me and smiled. “Your hair is beautiful,” he said as he walked by. How strange, I thought. And yet,Continue reading “Messages from the Universe”
To the West…(2021)
From St. Louis to Las Vegas… Cruising to Death Valley… Riding West to Alabama Hills… Traversing the Eastern Sierra… Benton Hot Springs and International Car Forest… The Las Vegas Strip…
Not a love language…
Anyone familiar with the five love languages of touch, quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, and acts of service is probably not new to the idea that individuals don’t always interpret love the same way. That is, they show and receive love through actions or behaviors that may differ from others close to them. BecauseContinue reading “Not a love language…”
Don’t Let Them…
If I could do absolutely anything, I believe I would package hope and hand it out to anyone and everyone who needs it. There are just too many damaged and broken people out there….and many are adults who just can’t seem to find their way to satisfying relationships with those of the opposite sex. They’reContinue reading “Don’t Let Them…”
A new home with you…
You may be but a world away, but you are the keeper and holder of my heart. Perhaps you are unaware, but it’s been in your care for awhile. Like a stowaway….it hitched a ride home with you on a cold night under the stars in another state when I intended to love you onlyContinue reading “A new home with you…”
To the East…(2021)
Blue Ridge Parkway – Virginia (South of Roanoke….) Shenandoah National Park In the Footsteps of Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Edgar Allan Poe House and Burial Site in Baltimore) Hollywood Cemetery & the Virginia Roadside (From Richmond to Hollywood Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland) Assateague Island National Seashore Chesapeake Bay (Chesapeake BayContinue reading “To the East…(2021)”
To the North…(2021)
South Dakota (The Badlands) (The Black Hills) Wyoming (Devils Tower National Monument) North Dakota (Theodore Roosevelt National Park) (The Enchanted Highway) Minnesota (Voyageurs National Park) (Silver Bay) Michigan (Upper Penninsula and Mackinac Bridge) (Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore) (Hartwick Pines State Park & Bay City)
The Black Hills, South Dakota
I’ve visited the Black Hills many times, but my trip to the area in 2021 was the first alone and I can’t wait to go back. Not only did I drive every single road I could find in the Black Hills National Forest, I saved coordinates of places to park and relax for a fewContinue reading “The Black Hills, South Dakota”
On loan from the universe…
As soon as we separate ourselves from others, others separate themselves from us. This was just one of the thoughts or realizations I had one cold day this past January as I house-sat for a friend in Des Moines, Iowa. I had been watching a few videos on minimalism prior to sitting down to write,Continue reading “On loan from the universe…”
A twin story…
When I was just three years old, I broke someone’s heart for the first time….and as I revisit the experience, I wonder what it might tell me about myself, relationships in general, and matters of the heart. But first, the story…. Like many children whose parents have depended on two incomes, I attended pre-school forContinue reading “A twin story…”
Love, hope, and wrong turns…
The tightrope between hope and despair is one many of us have walked a time or two in the search for love….so I thought a few words on the subject might be due. If you’ve ever hoped for something in love one minute, but found yourself wanting to throw in the towel the next, thenContinue reading “Love, hope, and wrong turns…”
The Unexpected Journey of Bath Towels…
The towels were the first thing I had to let go. I realize how peculiar this might sound….that out of all of the things one acquires in life—house, cars, furniture, clothing, dishes, tools, home decor, miscellaneous junk—the bathroom towels were the first among all of the other collected items I would give up. And yet,Continue reading “The Unexpected Journey of Bath Towels…”
Someday, you could be soaring…
During a one-day symposium held at the University of California in October 1986, author Ray Bradbury reportedly (Los Angeles Times) surmised that if enough people followed their hearts, they could realize their optimistic vision of humanity’s future. Although I would have been just 15 years old at the time, what he is credited with sayingContinue reading “Someday, you could be soaring…”
Jeanie Unbottled 