(Photo courtesy Georgia O'Keefe Museum) Coronado led the expedition to what would eventually become the state of New Mexico seeking a king’s ransom in gold. But what he found instead was a wide, burning landscape of stark contradictions and unique natural beauty; a land of…
When I was in my mid-20s, I spent a summer in New York City working and studying. I immediately fell in love with the city and found my pulse danced to the constant rhythm of traffic and people; to a compact space filled with people…
I woke up to feel my heart pounding, beating like a fist against the cage of my ribs, and for a moment I was confused. I realized I’d had a bad dream and just enough traces of the frightening things I’d imagined remained to poison…
I was sitting in an airport, somewhere, I don’t even remember which airport it was, watching two women in the row of chairs across from me. Like most travelers these days, they were surrounded by all the necessary carry-on items: purses, a takeout bag with…
It takes some getting used to when your children grow up and leave home. After years of living according to their schedules, from 2 a.m. feedings to a 2 a.m. curfew, even when they’ve been on their own for a while, it still feels odd…
As a young girl, inclined to daydream, I filled the pages of my diary with all the plans I made. I wrote late into the night under the tent of my blanket, working by flashlight, chewing on the end of my pen between bursts of…
It’s always a bit of a jolt when we see ourselves through another’s lens. Suddenly things we’d never noticed stand out. I was in Berlin recently. What has happened there since the wall fell is interesting. At the time of the reunification West Berlin was…
The scene in the morning was terrible. What was left of the torn, bloodied carcass of my beloved Anacona hen, the crazy, flighty Italian chicken whose antics never failed to amuse me, was tossed like so much trash in front of the henhouse. The two…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The day before I left Spokane and caught an early flight to Germany, the weather was wet and cold. More like late winter than late spring. Everywhere I went people were grumbling about the rain. “Sorry you have to be out…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) On my last day in Switzerland, I walked around Zurich, visiting museums, wandering up and down cobblestoned streets window-shopping and trying to lock it all in my memory. I strolled along the river and over bridges, people-watching, stopping to look at…
I brought the sheets and pillowcases in from the clothesline, stiffened by the wind and still warm from the late afternoon sun. Before I folded each piece, I buried my face in the fabric and breathed deeply. Who doesn’t love that smell? Like sunlight spun…
Without turning on the light I tiptoed into her room, careful to step over the gaping backpack spilling its cargo of papers, gym clothes and books; over DVDs and laundry and other indistinguishable shapes strewn across the floor. When I got to the bed I…
Walking to an early meeting, the sharp tapping of my heels on the sidewalk ricocheting off the stone walls of the old cathedral on the corner, I looked down at my feet and I was shocked by what I saw. I’d almost stepped on two…
She is our first mystery. Our first taste of love. She is the warm dark ocean where, curled and tethered, we float safe and secure. Before we are born she is the forgiving, elastic boundary of our small universe. She stretches around us, her bones…
April in the South is peak tornado season. Yesterday, killer storms swept through Alabama killing dozens, destroying lives and wiping out entire communities. It’s mid-April. The big forsythia I planted in my back yard is finally blooming. Jonquils have pushed up through the chilly soil.…
They stood on the corner downtown, a loose, silent group of young men. Most not more than boys, really. Each had a bag or duffle at their feet. I realized they were new recruits on their way to boot camp. To basic training. On their…
Walking down the streets of Nashville, it’s not uncommon to see a star; an artist stepping out of a studio or having a beer at a downtown watering hole. You might see them in the grocery store or jogging through the neighborhood. Nashville is that…
I didn’t pay much attention to the first shoe. It’s not unusual to see a lone shoe on the road, although I almost always wonder who dropped it and left it behind. The second shoe, the mate to the one I’d just passed, did get…
Think back to a soul-sucking work day in an environment that didn’t value the individual and corporate creative process, or at least give you the freedom to explore a new way of doing things. Most of us experience that at one time or another in…
The evening’s performance is Mozart and the beautiful old Fox Theater is filled with the sweet sounds of the violin and viola. My son is in town for the weekend and has accompanied us to a night at the Symphony. Watching him from a row…
The car swooped down on the empty parking spot like a bird of prey, flying the length of one car, then reversing and capturing the open space with one maneuver. The driver’s door opened and a woman stepped out, taking care not to dip her…
(photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The first thing you notice about the Alamo is that it stands right in the center of San Antonio. The small, sand-colored building, surrounded by trees and a lawn of green grass, ringed by tall buildings, sits like an antique, rough-cut…
Here I am, a grown woman with grown children, a woman who never played softball, who couldn’t get picked for a third-grade dodgeball game (then or now) and who has never even touched a golf club, and for the first time in my life I…
(photo by R.B. Millsap) In the dream, I rode the river like a magic carpet, floating on nothing more that a scrap of material beneath me. I lay still, relaxed, stretched out on my stomach with my hands folded under my cheek, lulled by the…
If you've been thinking about applying to appear on HGTV's "Bang for Your Buck," the show that brings in experts to compare three home renovations to determine which got the most bang for the money spent, think fast. Today (Monday) is the deadline. High Noon…
Cheryl-Anne Millsap's Home Planet column appears each week in the Wednesday "Pinch" supplement. Cheryl-Anne is a regular contributor to Spokane Public Radio and her essays can be heard on Public Radio stations across the country.
