The Journey
Welcome to The Journey, a space where Mary McKSchmidt shares her transition from business executive to advocate, photographer, poet, and storyteller. Here, she invites you to walk alongside her as she explores life in the Great Lakes region, its beauty and fragility, and the bonds that connect us all.
Hiking to Heal
In the autumn of 2012, I lost my dad, Rubin’s dad, and Lady, my parents’ dog and my best dog-friend ever. For the next two years, while mother remained in Arizona, I spent many months with her, often accompanied by Rubin. For over twenty years I had visited my...
Why No Photographs?
I looked for the wren singing from its perch on a nearby cactus, braved gale winds to photograph waves crashing over the harbor light, crawled along the earth’s floor to photograph wildflowers. When my shoulders are heavy with sadness, troubled with the weight of...
A Bench Story from a Reader
Geysers can be temperamental things. Sure, Old Faithful can be counted to erupt every 75 minutes or so, but when it was named, it was going off every hour almost to the minute. Its sisters are less predictable, and even though the visitor center posts windows of...
A Bench Story Celebrating 97 Years
Last week, Mother and I braved winds howling over 20 miles per hour and a windchill of 31 degrees to visit Windmill Island on her 97th birthday. We walked out to the “Jane Tree Corner” to see the Jane Magnolia and the bench commemorating the life she shared with...
A Bench Story from a Reader
Sculpench Sitting in our garden is a Philippine bench. Or is it a sculpture? It’s a bench. No, it’s a sculpture. It’s a sculpench. Spouse Julie was raised on Subic Bay, the Philippines. Her father, a Navy Captain, commanded the base. How this sculpted black bench...
A Bench Story from a Reader
A Quiet Spot in a State Park in Minnesota A few weeks ago, I was with my daughter’s family to help them following her surgery. Our two grandsons and I would walk each day in their neighborhood. One of the days, our son-in-law told me we were leaving at 11:00 for a...
“A Bench, a Tree and a Flower”
A Potpourri of Photography, Poetry, and PassionJoin me in Three Rivers, Saugatuck, Hastings, or Holland to hear our story “A Bench, a Tree, and a Flower” Mother, Jane McKinney, and I are members of the one in six described in the 2020 census. We are over 65. While...
Resting
Halfway through our long morning walk, Lady and I reston our favorite bench. With her back to meshe snuggles closeand uses her nose to guidemy arm around her. Looks like a Kodak picturea woman calls from the windowof a passing car. A neighbor couple walkingto the...
A Bench Story from a Reader
Sitting Pretty: The Benches of GRJC "A time it was, what a time it was" goes the song...and it was all of that. It was the spring of 1969. I was 19 years old and I was finishing my sophomore year at Grand Rapids Junior...
Bench Stories from Readers
Lutyens Bench and Courtside Lutyens BenchMy Lutyens bench was designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens in the early 1900s when he worked with famed garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. I saw these benches often when I visited England in the early 90s. I coveted one...
Bench Stories from Readers
Miracle Bench and Better Shared Miracle BenchI think of myself as having mastered both walking and talking. At the end of every trip, I would walk down the stairs to the deck to feel the breeze and see and hear the sound of the wind, the waves, and the boats....
Never Out of Harm’s Way by Mary McKSchmidt
On a bench tucked alongside the playground,a short walk to the windmill, safe distance from the coop,she tells me why she prefers not to eat chicken; how every morning the rooster watched her tiptoeacross the yard with a plate of table scraps,reach up to unlatch...