{"id":49338,"date":"2025-10-25T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=49338"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:06:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:06:55","slug":"alone-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/alone-in-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Alone in the House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dotting My Teas By: Marlene Oxender<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were given the assignment of writing a fiction story with the opening line: \u201cHe thought he was alone in the house,\u201d where would you go with the story? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about it for a moment: A guy believes he is alone in the house. Something is going to happen. You are the author. You decide where the story goes from there. It could be a comedy. Or a mystery. It could be a short story or the beginning of a novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiction writers often say their characters start doing things they didn\u2019t plan for them to do. That\u2019s because they\u2019re developing the story by being still. By thinking. By letting their imagination take off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago, a friend gave me a copy of a poetry book she\u2019d written. I didn\u2019t know I liked poetry until I read a few pages. Funny how an author takes words, lines them up in a particular way, and the reader sees the world with a slant they\u2019d never seen before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote my first poem, \u201cA Baby Toes Prayer,\u201d after finding a black-and-white photo in my parents\u2019 estate. It was a photo of my dad, my brother Don, and me, taken in the summer of 1963 when I was a baby. Dad was on the living room floor playing with us, and my baby toes were in Don\u2019s face. Thankfully someone grabbed the camera, and sixty years later, I am the baby girl who\u2019d grown up and found the photo in a cardboard box. It was a photo I\u2019d never seen before.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back when I was employed as a hospice nurse, I spent time with those who knew that heaven was just around the corner. It\u2019s a time in our life when we naturally have mixed feelings about being on the home stretch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although most of us look back at days gone by and think we\u2019d do things differently, we probably would not. We were just living. We were just being. We had hobbies and interests, so we bought and collected worldly goods. In the end, the items we collected are simply part of our story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we are children, it\u2019s easy to see earth as a place to explore. A place where our imaginations take off. A place where we watch the sun rise and know it\u2019ll take most of the day to get its work done \u2013 warming things up and changing the brilliance of the landscape. Making things grow and thrive. Deepening the color of our skin. Lifting our mood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the moon, the way it lights up the nighttime skies. Not only here \u2013 but there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may think the moon and the stars were placed in the sky just for us, and they were. But do we know what they\u2019re up to? There\u2019s no doubt the stars are twinkling, but how do they do it?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We honor life by slowing down. By noticing things that have been here all along. By finding joy in the way a flower moves when a butterfly lands on it. By listening to the birds who seemingly take requests. By humming a favorite tune, simply because humming really does make us feel better.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life is always prompting us with beautiful things to notice and write about. In all genres. And we need not wait for life to send us an invitation to start living. We\u2019re already invited, and everyone\u2019s invitation reads the same: The date is \u201cToday.\u201d The place is \u201cHere.\u201d And the time is \u201cNow.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene Oxender is a writer, speaker, and author. She writes about growing up in the small town of Edgerton, her ten siblings, the memorabilia in her parents\u2019 estate, and her late younger brother, Stevie Kimpel, who was born with Down syndrome. Her three published books, Picket Fences, Stevie and Grandma, You Already Am Old, are available on Amazon. Marlene can be reached at mpoxender@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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