One year ago today – or close enough to make a good column – I stepped away from journalism after close to 30 years. In my first hours as a free woman, I created Okaloosa Stories – this website – where I could continue to write. I was afraid I would miss it. I haven’t.... Continue Reading →

Throughout the course of my writing life, I’ve met so many people who are paralyzed by the act of putting words down on paper or etching them onto a screen. Much has paralyzed me during my decades of living. I have been frozen at times in the face of everything from driving to trusting to... Continue Reading →

Two days after rescuing a child from an outgoing tide at Crab Island, Jason Cupp could still feel the fatigue. At 49, Cupp is an experienced swimmer, understands the Gulf of Mexico and has been caught in multiple rip currents. In hindsight, he says he should have known better than to handle Monday’s rescue the... Continue Reading →

Life in these last few months has been about choices for me. It always is, of course, for all of us but we can go for months or years without being conscious of making choices. We drift into decisions, we are pulled toward them or pushed. We react, stepping back into a decision or running... Continue Reading →

The first thing you notice are her eyes, and then her laugh and finally the large artificial sunflower clipped to her wavy gray hair. The flower is the national flower of Ukraine where Lydia Weaver of Fort Walton Beach still has family. Her first cousin, a doctor, is there. So, likely, are her cousin’s husband,... Continue Reading →

I grew up reading every book I could find and fighting with my brother over who got to read the back of the cereal box at breakfast. I have been writing most of my life. I look for words everywhere. But on Easter Sunday, I found words in unexpected places. I have no explanation for... Continue Reading →

When I walk, I talk with myself. Notice that I used “with” instead of “to” in that first sentence. As I have gotten older, I noticed how little I talked to myself or listened to myself. All the noise in my head and my world was from the outside in. But my ability to enjoy... Continue Reading →

Growing up in Illinois, I was surrounded by dandelions and fireflies. I have actively missed fireflies, having raised three kids in a land without tiny lanterns lighting up the evening hours. I hadn’t noticed the lack of dandelions until last week. It took me 25 years to notice that although Northwest Florida has some of... Continue Reading →

On Friday I got a text from a teacher at Fort Walton Beach High School who didn’t know I’d left the world of newspapers to write on my own terms. It read: “FWBHS where, by order of the governor, some of my students are known and valued, and the rest we need to hide away."... Continue Reading →