(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) An acquaintance recently asked where I'd been that had surprised me the most and I didn't hesitate to answer. Tallinn, the beautiful and ancient Estonian city on the edge of the Baltic Sea, was surprising in many ways. Virtually unknown to…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) My son has been on a boat out on the Pacific for weeks now and every so often a few lines arrive by email. “This has been a great trip,” he writes “The hurricane turned so the seas are not so…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The little boy stood beside the table that held the mini-iceberg, the chunk of ice that had once been a part of the North Sawyer Glacier before breaking away--calving-- and falling with a splash into the Tracy Arm fjord off Alaska’s…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) I have friends who actually plan each meal. Not just at holidays, but all year long. Even in the summer. Even on vacation. They look through magazines and cookbooks and pick a recipe because it excites them, not because it uses…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) As the newspaper’s former “social” reporter, I’ve been to a lot of parties over the years. Countless times I’ve dressed in an evening gown or little black dress and found my seat at a big banquet table set for eight or…
In the jumble of odds and ends I carry around in my purse, a mix of grocery store receipts, loose change, lipgloss, hairbands and bobby pins, mints, a small leather notebook and a pen, there is an honest-to-goodness map of the world. And I don’t…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) The one thing I didn’t have was time. I had more to do than there would be productive hours in the day to allow. I had a thousand words to put onto paper, a house that needed tending to, emails to…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) I see a thousand automobiles every day. They’re all around me. They roll down my street in the morning and late at night. They ride in formation in front, beside, or behind me on the highways and freeways. And yet, never…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Living in villages in the remote southeastern corner of Estonia, the Setu people have been farmers and woodsmen for centuries. No one seems to be exactly sure how long. They are said to be the oldest settled people in Europe, having…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) After three weeks on the road, traveling through different countries and cultures, I was still waking up in the middle of the night, addled by dreams, confused by my surroundings, having forgotten I was home again. I would blink in the…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) In a quiet corner of Belgium, tucked into what is now a residential area, behind a low brick wall and evergreen hedge and just beyond an avenue of stately Linden trees, 368 American soldiers are buried at the Flanders Field American…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) We meet a couple of times a month, schedules permitting. We drink a cup of coffee and if I’m lucky there’s cake or pie. Then we spend an hour or two working on the words she has put on paper since…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Just after the morning’s first cup of coffee, I pedaled my bicycle to the organic market near my house. I’d been drawn by the sign advertising fresh local asparagus and I came home with bundles of the tender green vegetable in…
(Photo of the Hotel Viru KGB Museum by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) It’s usually done without thinking. I check into a hotel, unpack, take a photo if the view from the window is a good one, maybe even take a nap or, if there's time, a bubble…
Preparing to take a taxi to the Brussels airport, I’ve removed everything from my suitcase and spread it across the bed in my hotel room and I am, one by one, refolding and repacking each piece. Looking at the things I’ve gathered, even though I…
The helicopter lifted carrying six strangers, all of us tourists from across the United States. Our pilot, Gary, turned immediately toward the center of the island and within minutes, the bright Kaua’i coastline was lost in the dense vegetation. I’d already skirted the coast by…
In 2004, after writing a series of narrative feature obituaries for The Spokesman-Review, I began to notice how often women in their 70s and 80s--usually the surviving spouse--mentioned their service or work in a “Rosie the Riveter” type of job during World War II. Intrigued,…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Following the main street through the center of Fish Creek, Wisconsin, on the western shore of the Door Peninsula, I stopped at the literal end of the road and stared out at the blue-white ice-skimmed surface of Green Bay. Sunset Beach…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) Holding my newborn granddaughter, gazing down at her as she sleeps, I study her closely, mapping her with my hands and my eyes just as I did with her mother, my firstborn child. Just as I did with each of my…
For most of my work-from-home career, we’ve shared an office and a routine. As soon as the door closes behind the rest of the family, we go to work. I have a tendency to fuss and fidget, jumping up from my computer to answer the…
(Craters of the Moon National Monument photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) We follow the path that allowed a smooth, safe, place to walk over the rough, broken, lava field covering the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, out to the open pits and domed entrances to…
This morning, at Chaps, one of my family's favorite places for Sunday brunch, I noticed a young family sitting at the table beside us. Three young boys and their parents. The mother and father had their hands full with the two younger children, one just…
Sometimes before a speaking engagement, I have to gather my thoughts and find a topic that will have some relevance to everyone in the crowd. Other times, I don’t have to think about it at all. Last week, I spoke to a private executive networking…
(Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap) My eyes flew open and I was instantly awake. It wasn’t that long ago that when I woke suddenly in the middle of the night, I would lie still for a moment, listening for what had pulled me out of a…
I knew even before I opened my eyes, something wasn’t right. Lying on my back in the dark room, I could feel a heaviness on the center of my chest, a pressure that made taking each breath an effort. My mind raced, inventorying the signs…
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.
