Welcome to Alice Picks Up a Pen

Exploring the Amazing Challenge of Wholehearted Living.

We all have stories... this blog gives you a first edition peek into a bit of mine. A small-town girl, a desert rat, a lover of words, a quick wit, tender heart, and sometimes biting tongue. I am rooted by place, family, faith, and friendships... and I know that was too many "f's" for good writing but, what is one to do. I am driven by ego, doubt, confidence, fear, ambition, apathy, courage, hopelessness, fierce love, and crippling grief. Basically, I am you, you are me. Let's get to know each other.

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The Phone Call that Did Not Come

PERSPECTIVE I only have one voicemail - one from four years ago this birthday comes and goes with no Happy Birthday Mama! I push the green triangle PLAY from that old message, over and over and over … give me a call… just if you get the chance. I’d love to hear your voice. Oh, sweet thing. What I wouldn’t give to hear your voice one more time. Why don’t I have every voicemail you ever left me?! Because I always picked up. I need to remember this. This fact that changes ev

Dec 72 min read

Letting Go

we laugh at your baby photos so like mine that we have to check our mother’s writing on the back Alice 70’ or David 72’ playing in the yard with the dog Tramp , a mutt who walked us to the bus stop went on all our hikes and loved a good cow pie roll he lived till we were both in high school high school you were only a year behind me made our yearbook’s “most likely to succeed” while I was most definitely “laziest senior” See? See what a beautiful life you had? photos of

Oct 292 min read

Bubble World

If Only she carries them everywhere she goes filling the world with rainbow spheres carried on the bounce of giggling breath she offers...

Sep 21 min read

SAVE the PLANET!

An IKEA Guilt Trip IKEA couch calls to tired legs the checkout line moves forward without me shoulder sloped from the iconic blue bag...

Aug 241 min read

Piss Ant

does a piss ant smell of piss? they are very small very far down from a nose how does one decide, “this is...

Aug 181 min read

The WHY? of it all.

A paradox is a statement or group of statements that, despite seeming illogical, may contain a deeper truth or reveal a complex situation...

Aug 31 min read

Feathered Friends

Only One arriving home from far away early dawn inspection cries of anguish curses thrown hither and yon they left only one the finches,...

Jul 91 min read

Cinquain

boys small grubby giggling racing squabbling time for naps please grandsons

Jun 221 min read

Happy Father's Day

I wake in the wrong room sun rising through the wrong window voices in the distance the hiss, drip, drip of coffee rumble of laughter...

Jun 151 min read

Political Heat

Fellow Patriots, Though you simmer with rage, I urge you, do not boil over, do not burn bridges, refrain from using scorching rhetoric....

Jun 31 min read

I love me a good list

A list is holy the to do the not to do the people you love the people you love to hate A list is therapy I am thankful for… x 10...

Apr 221 min read

Sevenling

Sevenling you declared we would find you in the sunsets, cherry blossoms, by carefully listening to ocean’s heartbeat instead, we mourn...

Apr 141 min read

Coffee with Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver and I have coffee this morning she is my friend without ever knowing my name she writes of spring: daffodils, swallows,...

Mar 41 min read

RAGE

He stands next to the bed, two coffee cups in hand. “Brown or yellow?” I look up from my phone, instantly enraged but mustering...

Feb 254 min read

Phoenix Rising

How do I grieve the woman I worked so hard to become? the woman who did the work to become self-aware emotionally intelligent grounded...

Feb 42 min read

To Eat or Not to Eat...

I eat. I eat and eat and eat. Not fruits and vegetables. Don’t be silly! Carbs and sugar and all varieties therein are the new go-to...

Jan 143 min read

Adam's Water Buffalo

This is a story I told at a December 2022 storytelling event called T or C Story Lab. The theme was, "Well, That Was Awful..." It gave me...

Dec 24, 20243 min read

COSMOS

she holds out a flower plucked from her garden a Cosmos yellow face peeking out dainty pink petals numbering seven the symbol of...

Dec 10, 20241 min read

Who Will You Be?

You were a boy, my boy. Will you be a boy when I see you again? “little, dirty, and bad” fart jokes, chewed nails, soccer shirt wardrobe...

Dec 3, 20241 min read

The LIST

Our family has a tradition of the Thanksgiving Corn Ceremony. After dinner, each family member receives five kernels of dried corn. We go...

Nov 26, 20243 min read

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