Exploring the Jungle —Mary Lott

Usually, I can pinpoint a cause for the challenges I face. I know exactly when, why, and how I broke my nose and ended up looking like a raccoon for more than two weeks.

Way back in 1974, my now husband, Mike, asked me a question as we waited for the beginning of our next class at Auburn University in Alabama. He started off by telling me of…

“Mom, how did you know that?” My youngest child was astonished that I knew of a particular naughtiness they had done. My two older children groaned. They knew my stock answer was coming. They…

It was a rather inauspicious start to a visit. I arrived after midnight one night and my daughter Gail didn’t allow the kids to wake me up the next morning. So, after gaining consciousness…

I gave up with a sigh. Yet again, I’d spent over half an hour lying in bed, hoping to beckon Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. His absence was exasperating. Once again, I started…

“Are you OK?” The young woman’s anxious query affirmed to me that I was’t imagining things. I’d just stood up from the wheelchair and entered the women’s bathroom at the airport. “Yes, I’m fine.”…

Mile after weary mile, the oxen plodded ever westward. “When would we get to the end?” I wondered. My husband and I had started our journey several weeks earlier. At least I was riding…

The all-too-familiar tickle in the back of my throat warned me: I was getting a cold. I would rather have malaria than a cold. I hate everything about it, from the achy, run-down feeling,…

Boom! Splash! The night sky exploded with a blossom of color showering down overhead. I am remembering a past fireworks display. Talking ceased as we all gazed upward. Then, almost in unison, the crowd…

I slumped into the wheelchair waiting for me outside the airplane door. It had been a long 36-hour trip. I was able to catnap in my economy seats, but my exhausted body was looking…