As a kid, we had a dog named Heidi, but we never walked her. She just walked herself wherever we went, sticking close by always, as we spent most every day outside playing in our yard or the woods behind our house. I do remember picking up a lot of dog poop as a kid,… Continue reading Since Becoming a Dog Walker…
When your otherwise coordinated husband falls out of his wheelchair not once but twice in one week, we know the world is extra topsy turvy. When it’s mid April and snow and freezing rain continue to fall angrily outside, I question Mother Nature’s decision making process. When bad things continue to happen to good people–… Continue reading Are You There God? It’s Me, Heather…
When I set out to write a realistic fiction novel, True North, I knew one of my main characters would be a dad with a spinal cord injury who was a good man, with a dark secret in his past, and a fairly significant character flaw. As a high school English teacher for 20 years,… Continue reading Christopher and Dana Reeve Blog, March 26, 2018: “Tracking Our Character”
This morning, in front of my first period English class, one of my female students innocently asks if I was wearing a new shirt. “Sure am,” and I’m thinking she will tell me she likes it. And she does tell me, but not immediately. Instead she casually points out, “You still have the M sticker… Continue reading Dearest March: Please Send April
Today is International Women’s Day 2018, and I felt compelled to write something. Anything. However, nothing inspired me because, since Parkland happened, my brain has been cycling in this school safety- gun violence- rut. I couldn’t think of a specific person or angle or clever hook that would suck in my audience with a positive… Continue reading Channeling Mother Teresa for Character and Barbara Washburn for Adventure on This International Women’s Day 2018
Dear Mikaela, Lindsey, Stephanie, Laurie and/or any other Female U.S Olympic or Paralympic Alpine Ski Racer Willing to Pass Down Your GS Suit to a Six Year Old: Forgive the first name basis, Ms. Shiffrin, Ms. Vonn, Ms. Jallen, and Ms. Stephens. You see, the other day my daughter asked me to write you a… Continue reading Dear Mikaela, Lindsey, Stephanie, Laurie, and/or any other Female U.S. Olympic or Paralympic Alpine Ski Racer Willing to Pass Down Your GS Suit to a Six Year Old…
Dear President Trump, If I wanted to carry a gun, pistol, rifle, firearm of any kind, I would have joined a different profession. I would have pursued a military career or that of a policeman, security guard, or secret service agent. I could have been many things, but I chose to be a teacher. The… Continue reading President Trump: This is What I Will be Armed With in my Classroom
Don’t get me wrong; we love to celebrate our children’s friendships at school. We LOVE our teachers– been damn lucky every year since birth so far! We LOVE the growing friendships in their classrooms, through our neighborhood, on our mountain. We LOVE the big kids our own look up to. There is so much LOVE… Continue reading Here’s the Problem with Valentine’s Day…
Since I started writing a blog a little over two years ago, this is the longest amount of time I’ve gone without publishing. It’s not that I didn’t have ideas I wanted to write down; I did, but they felt mundane and unlikely to attract many readers. Then I got a cold and blew… Continue reading Understanding Choice, Risk, and Courage: Especially in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
I’ve never dragged a human body into the woods, but I can imagine the work involved. After all, each year I dissemble the Christmas tree, and we say a little prayer of thanks over his branches before returning him to the woods where he came from. This year, however, I had to drag him… Continue reading Christmas Carcass
Heather Ehrman Krill: The "Write" Kind of Coach 