by Mary McKSchmidt | Jun 9, 2025 | 2025, Poetry
Not a Petoskey. Not a skipping stone. Not even a geode. Jagged, slightly larger than a softball, the rock was among the other rocks hauled, dumped, and arranged ten years ago to create a border between the carport and manicured lawn. It rested comfortably among the...
by Mary McKSchmidt | May 26, 2025 | 2025, Poetry
what am I doingto care for myself this day in May when winds plunge temperatures near freezingand the sun slips behindthe too-familiar gray of spring? I am donning a winter coat,a pair of mittensand helping him launch the new and unfamiliar dinghywith a seatback and...
by Mary McKSchmidt | May 11, 2025 | 2025, Poetry
After tediously tucking twigs and grasses into the juncture of the service berry tree outside Mother’s window for days, the robin nestled her plump body into the mud-lined floor of the nest and poked her tail in our direction as if to say, quit...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Apr 28, 2025 | Blog Post, 2025
Could the king be checked by the people? That was the underlying question asked by the Sons of Liberty 250 years ago, according to author and historian Heather Cox Richardson. In a talk given April 18th in Boston’s Old North Church on the anniversary of the...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Apr 22, 2025 | Blog Post, 2025
(Reprinted from May 21, 2017) Although there were thousands crammed into the Vatican Square in Rome, it was as if the Pope was talking directly to me. Speaking of Mary, the mother of Jesus and the woman for whom I was named, Pope Francis called her the “Mother...
by Mary McKSchmidt | Apr 7, 2025 | Blog Post, 2025
One look at the hundreds of people lining River Avenue April 5th in Holland, MI, the multiplicity of messages on hand-painted signs, the photographs and videos of similar peaceful protests across over 1300 towns and cities in the United States, and it should be...