Waking up to an ordinary day
I flew into my day on autopilot. I turned off the clock radio and stole an extra fifteen minutes in bed. I made a lunch for my daughter and called up the stairs to stop dawdling so we wouldn’t be late. I shoved the dogs…
Home Planet
SATURDAY, FEB. 19, 2011
MONDAY, FEB. 14, 2011
Some years, love bites.
It looked like a child’s Valentine, a square of red construction paper glued onto a round, lacy, white paper doily. I noticed it on the floor, one edge trapped under the leg of a chair in the coffee shop. I picked it up and opened…
Love in Plain Brown Paper
Another Valentine re-post. This one was written in 2005 during my first life as a S-R freelancer. February 14, 2005 Real love is the kind we are surrounded by every day Cheryl-anne Millsap The Spokesman-Review Chances are you’ve got love, or something like it, on…
SATURDAY, FEB. 12, 2011
Valentine Swan Song 2
(photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The wind slipped cold, cruel fingers down my collar and teased at the heavy scarf around my neck and it fluttered and danced around my face as I walked carefully down the slushy sidewalk. The afternoon sun was high and bright…
True Love is Truly Ageless
This is a re-post of one of my favorite columns. I am always asked to read it when I have a speaking engagement. I wrote this in 2006 but I've never forgotten the feeling of standing at the window and watching the couple walk down…
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 9, 2011
HGTV looking for Spokane renovations
I got a note from the producer of HGTV’s Bang For your Buck and she's looking for Spokane home improvement stories. Here's your chance to be on TV! HGTV is looking for great room renovations in the Spokane area to be featured on the hit…
SATURDAY, FEB. 5, 2011
Cave Painting in Jasper National Park
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) When we arrive at the starting point for our hike, Trevor, our Overlander Trekking guide, gives us all thick, insulated, boots and a set of cleats to strap on the soles. Checking that we have hats and gloves, he leads us…
SATURDAY, JAN. 29, 2011
Taking in the Great Outdoors
Usually, dawn is just touching the sky when I open my eyes. Still blinking, half-lost in a fading dream, I reach over to the table beside my bed for my glasses and my camera. I stumble across the dark room and make my way to…
SUNDAY, JAN. 23, 2011
Millsap audio columns on iTunes
As most of my regular readers know, my weekly Home Planet columns are recorded for Spokane Public Radio where they air each Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. Each audio essay is then added to the KPBX podcasts and now those podcasts are available on iTunes.…
SATURDAY, JAN. 22, 2011
Saturday, Snow and the Happy Boy.
There are times, or so it feels to me, when our lives are fed to us the way food is stuffed into a goose to make foie gras. We don’t get a break. We’re crammed with more than we can possibly handle. There isn’t time…
FRIDAY, JAN. 14, 2011
The shoplifter
The snow was gritty and gray and piled into oily berms at the edges of the grocery store parking lot. It was one of those nights between holidays, between snowfalls, when winter isn’t beautiful at all, just cold and dreary and difficult. I sent my…
TUESDAY, JAN. 11, 2011
The Upside of Jet Lag
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The upside of jet lag, and I suppose it takes a certain kind of optimism to even search for an upside, is that you sometimes find yourself awake and alone deep in the night. Or, at least, that’s what happens to…
THURSDAY, DEC. 30, 2010
Start the new year on a new note
I know you’re not really in the mood to listen to your mother, but I can’t help it. I have something to say. And, since I don’t want to chase you around, texting and calling, nagging and whining into your ear, I decided to put…
When silence falls like snow
The dog scratched at the door, asking to go outside. For days the city had been wrapped in a front of arctic air that swept down from the north and wouldn’t leave us. It was so cold that the doorknob burned against the palm of…
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 29, 2010
Bailing out of Christmas 1
Driving through town, even though it wasn’t very late, the city was quiet. It was Christmas Eve and most people were already wherever they were going to be for the night. There was no traffic, the buildings downtown were dark. No one was out walking…
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 24, 2010
The Naked Truth About Tom
Dear Ms. Millsap, Several years ago you wrote an article in the Spokesman Review about your daughter and a picture of a turkey. I thought it was very funny and I gave copies to some of my friends. I even sent one to my 82…
TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 2010
The One Who Was
(photo of George Ohr courtesy Ohr-O'Keefe Museum) Once, over a cup of coffee, late into the evening when confidences are easily shared, a friend leaned close to me and said, “I am meant for something special. I know I am. Since I was a little…
MONDAY, NOV. 15, 2010
A circle of friends and writers
(photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Most Monday nights we gather together We open the door of the small building that houses the studio of an artist friend and walk into the warmth of a room filled with the all the tools and spirit of creativity. There…
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3, 2010
Ready for what is to come
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) This winter, if ominous predictions can be trusted, is going to be a big one. That’s what the forecasters say. That’s what was printed in the newspaper. That’s what I keep hearing on the radio. They say this winter the wind…
TUESDAY, NOV. 2, 2010
A Letter to the Candidates 1
There. I voted. I did my part. I did the research, marked the little bubbles and dropped the ballot in the box. I listened to what you had to say and I told you what I want for the future. Now, go away and leave…
FRIDAY, OCT. 8, 2010
Breast Cancer: The Power of Pink.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In 2006 I wrote the following column to honor my grandmother who was born in October and died in the same month 70 years later. This is her story. I'd like to share it again this year:October 30, 2006…
THURSDAY, SEPT. 23, 2010
The First Flush of Fall
I don’t need a calendar to tell me what’s happening, and it doesn't matter where I am. I just have to open my eyes to see the change of seasons. The light has, for weeks now, had a golden cast as it slopes down over…
MONDAY, SEPT. 13, 2010
If I Could Take You to Yellowstone
If I could take you to Yellowstone National Park, I would take you there on a sweet September morning. So early in the morning, the sky above the horizon was still a deep velvet blue and stars hadn’t yet faded and the moon still hung…
SUNDAY, SEPT. 12, 2010
A Path of Desire
I rested the side of my head on the cool glass of the small oval of the airplane window and gazed down at the ground below the wing. We were flying east, moving beyond the Cascades and toward the Rockies, covering hundreds of miles an…
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8, 2010
Goodbye, Apple Charlotte 4
From the first time I stepped into her kitchen, Char Zyskowski became a special friend. I was a freelancer, relatively new to the area. I’d gotten a tip about a chef who held cooking classes in her home on the South Hill. I called, we…
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.