Clean Eyes

A couple of months ago, there was this ten year challenge going around on various social media, mostly Instagram and Facebook.  I remember looking through photos (and yes, I did post one just for fun) and thinking to myself that I literally look the exact same.  My hair was more or less the same length, color, and I was more or less happy to the same extent, at least upon first glance at the image.  But if you dug beneath the surface, Marie of 2009 and Marie of 2019 are very different.

Out of the Box

As a young girl, I spent the majority of my time dirtying myself up in the woods of Wisconsin.  I loved playing make believe, cutting hair off my Barbie dolls, or jumping off the pier and into Lake Geneva.  I was not shy to being dirty, nor was I shy to getting rough with the boys.

From a baby to age fourteen, the question of love and who we fall in love with never really bothered me much.  As far as I knew during my grade school existence, I’d crushed on a few boys.  A few boys had crushed on me.  And of course, there were one or two girls who seemed to have feelings for me, but as far as I knew, I didn’t seem to like them back the same way.  Over all of that, I played on two hockey teams, so the idea of trying to date was totally off my radar.  So I placed myself in the first box: straight.  Straight as an arrow.  Or so I thought.

Fall is for Family

Of all the seasons, my favorite is autumn.  Part of that is due to the beauty I saw growing up around this time of year.  In the Midwest, the leaves would change color, turning from vibrant green to rusted colors.  The trees would shed themselves of summer’s fragments and everyone would find their way to the orchards, ready to pick out the recent harvest: apples, pumpkins, fruits, vegetables, and then finish off a day in the fields with a drink of apple cider with mitten covered hands.