My dad’s birthday is today. He would have been 107. I’ve put other stuff on my wall about Pop – recycled stories and videos (and have I mentioned Dad is in Wikipedia?) But I thought I’d gift him with something new for his birthday. He’s not really gone, you see. I still feel his presence here with me – not as a ghost or anything – but I feel his smile with me, his humor and his love.
Daddy, I miss our drives together. I miss the conversations we managed to have, even though we were both hard-of-hearing. I remember you sitting in the passenger seat, your head going back and forth as you took in the landscape, telling me about the geologic history of whatever area we were traveling through, and often saying, “I made a field trip out here for the USGS,” or “I hiked that trail,” or “I climbed that,” or “This would make a good painting.”
One of the greatest gifts you passed on to me was a love for the outdoors, and an appreciation of the natural beauty around us. I followed you up to the summits of Hood and Rainier, Baker and Adams – and when I look at those peaks now I’m sort of in awe that I climbed them – who was I to think I could do that?!
I was Dee Molenaar’s daughter, that’s who.
You instilled a confidence in myself that’s gotten me through some really challenging years. Thank you for that gift, too.
Through your travels and connections you met some amazing, fearless people. Your community of fellow adventurers was filled with brave, heroic visionaries. You introduced me to people of all races and all major religions, and exampled for me what it means to love the world’s people without bigotry or discrimination. As a youngster, I hiked with Tenzing Norgay! As a twelve-year-old, I ran a mile down our country road with Doris Brown!! Governor Evans came to our house to borrow climbing equipment one time. And it wasn’t out-of-the-ordinary for me to pick up the phone and find myself talking to Edmund HIllary. You were comfortable moving among both the famous and the not, and always enjoyed meeting new “mountain people.”
You could be stubborn. You could be critical. You could be bossy. But I always knew you loved me. I always felt your support. You let me know you were proud of me. I’m glad I had you for my Pop.
Happy birthday, Daddy!
(Photos: My feet next to Dad’s – I think this was on our climb of Mount Hood when I was 15; a screenshot of what came up when I googled “Dee Molenaar”; Dad, my brother, Pete, and I on Mount Rainier.)
Lincoln City, Day One: I’m thinking the world’s problems could be solved if we all just gathered on the shores of our earth’s oceans and looked out towards the horizon together – watched the waves rolling into shore, and shared agates with each other.
I saw the figure of a woman standing at the edge of the ocean, looking towards the waves. There was something poignant and dear about the way she stood there. Later she approached me as I looked for agates. She asked me what I was looking for, and I told her. She asked what an agate was, and I described what an agate would look like. I hoped that I would just look down and find one to give her, but that didn’t happen right away.
I told her I’d taken her photo and showed her the picture. I said there was something very sweet about the way she looked out towards the ocean. Kristi told me her father had died just last week, after being diagnosed with cancer ten days before. She said his passing had been sweet and tender. “He went home to Jesus,” she said. She said his passing had been different than other deaths she’d witnessed. It had been peaceful.
And just then I looked down and saw an agate looking up at me. I plucked it up and gave it to Kristi. “Here’s an agate!” I said. “This one is from your dad.” She smiled at the idea of that, and let me take her picture holding the agate.
A little later I met Todd and Donna searching the rock beds for agates and other treasures. I learned Todd and Donna had traveled all the way from Indiana to make their first visit to the PNW. They were such fun!
Todd and I exchanged mountaineering stories. He said he’d climbed up to the top of a 13,900′ peak in Colorado while he was on a hunting trip, and the elevation had really gotten to him. I told him I’d climbed Rainier, Baker, Adams, and Hood in the PNW with no problems – but it was when I climbed Mount Harvard in Colorado that the elevation had effected me – I had to vomit in the nearest hole. He said he enjoyed hiking around in the Appalachians and I told him a friend of mine had just finished the AT this week! He described how he came off a short hike on the AT one time and someone had asked him if he’d just finished the Appalachian Trail. Todd started laughing then – he said he was wearing sneakers and had none of the equipment that would make him look like he’d just completed the AT, but it was fun that someone thought he had.
We all talked about the nice people we’d met in Lincoln City. We agreed that this was a nice break from all the division and politics going on right now and agreed we weren’t even going to talk about that stuff. We were simply people enjoying the ocean together. People enjoying other people.
A little further down the beach, little Buddy came scampering towards me for a hug and a scratch behind the ears.
Lincoln City, Day 2:
Agates and gnarly boulders, Banjo pup and her humans, Russ and Nan from Montana.
Russ recently left the forest service to go back to school to get his master’s in counseling. He told me a little of what had brought him to his new career choice, and I told him that the world really needs what he has to offer. Russ and Nan are good people, and Banjo is a good dog.
Lincoln City, Day 3: Our last morning in Lincoln City. Made one last trip to the beach before hitting the road.
Met Melinda and Ray hunting for beach treasures. I was impressed by how nimbly Ray skipped across the boulders – he said he didn’t want to hurt any of the sea life. And look at the cool heart rock Melinda found!
Jennifer said she was from Nevada where there’s “just dirt” and she was so excited to be in a place where she could look for agates. She said she’d just found little ones so far. “You’re just about to step on one,” I told her, pointing to the agate just behind her foot. She plucked the agate up, a big grin on her face, and said, “The biggest one so far!”
Little Chocko pup was shy at first, but I held my hand out for him, and he came up for a sniff and a scratch behind his ears.
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Agates and pups and people to laugh with. Life’s simple pleasures. Heaven lives in Lincoln City, Oregon.
Below: (clockwise from upper left): Todd and Donna, Buddy, Melinda, Jennifer, Russ and Nan and Banjo, Kristi.
The last couple of days – in an effort to keep life in perspective – I’ve been making an effort to acknowledge all the 99.9% of life that’s good and beautiful and going on around me all the time – every creature that’s expressing life; every breath I take; every smile exchanged; every pretty little rock I find; the perfume of every flower I sniff in the Valentine’s display at the supermarket; every raindrop sparkling in the sunshine; every purr from my cat; every shared laugh on the boardwalk; every swan and eagle winging above me; every kindness shown me by friends and strangers – and I’m here to tell you that we live in a wondrous and bountifully beautiful world.
Karen Molenaar Terrell
Clara and her tail.December: Trumpeter Swan Flying over Skagit County, WATrumpeter Swans in Bow, WA (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)Otter Family
We created this home together – my love and I – and filled it with warmth and joy and now I sit in our “green room” and gather my memories around me like a soft blanket this is where Dad sat on his 98th birthday and reminisced with his old friends and there is his painting of Rainier and Mom sang and danced over there, and lived and died under this roof that last day, and over there is where the sons played the piano and laughed together and, later, their loves joined us under this roof and joined in the laughter while the pandemic made of our home a safe island and refuge
I feel all the love with me still Dad’s love and Mom’s and the sons’ and their partners’ and the love of the man who helped make this home with me
I feel the wholeness and fulness of my life and am grateful -Karen Molenaar Terrell
T’was four weeks afore Christmas and it was once again time for shamelessly plugging my goods in a rhyme. There were books about Dad, and madcap books for you, books of celebration, and books of poetry, too.
I wrote two books about the drives and adventures I had with my centenarian father, Dee Molenaar, a well-known mountaineer and artist. Are You Taking Me Home Now? Adventures with Dad, and The Second Hundred Years: Further Adventures with Dad can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and through any of your favorite bookstores. The books have five stars on Amazon. In her Amazon review, Heidi writes: “This is a delightful book and Karen is a gifted writer. She lets us listen in to the conversations she and her 100 year old Dad have on their car trips, which had me laughing and crying. Interspersed are memories of earlier times. Having a relationship with an older person whose body and brain don’t work as well as it used to requires patience, humor and love. As someone else here said, ‘Karen shows us how to do it right.’ I enjoyed reading this very much. I highly recommend this book and will be giving it out for gifts.”
My Cosmic Celebration series includes two books: Cosmic Connections: Sharing the Joy and Cosmic Kinship: Celebrating Community. These books can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and through your favorite bookstore. They currently have five stars on Amazon. C Meares writes: “Cosmic Connections follows the excursions of an extraverted author and photographer who befriends nearly every person who crosses her path. This uplifting read highlights life’s small moments of connection — with strangers, old friends she meets by chance, the hapless, friendly dogs and former students. The author uses brief anecdotes—one or two pages—to show how much goodness permeates life. One entry describes meeting a stranger, only to find out she is the daughter of the minister who married her and her husband (in another part of the state) 30 years before. Her warm writing style and enthusiasm for life is infectious.”
In 2005, I published my first book, Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist. It currently has 4.5 stars and 45 ratings on Amazon. VoIP – Dragon User writes: “OK, after reading the reviews, I thought this might make a nice Christmas present for a friend. When it arrived I decided to ‘peek’ at a few pages, but couldn’t put it down. I finished reading it in one sitting. But how to review the book is a challenge. It leaves you with such a joyful uplifted feeling and one of appreciation and relevance. At first I found myself saying, ‘I want to know this woman’ and after I finished the book I felt I did.
“Karen brings very positive reinforcement into the reader’s experience and the easy flowing style just melts in your mouth like comfort food. I found dozens of instances where I saw a parallel in my own life, that were entertaining and inspirational in a down to earth sort of way.
“I’m wearing a smile having read this and can’t think of a better way to pass an evening than this quick roller-coaster ride through another’s eyes of refreshing gratitude.
“It touched my heart and soul. Highly recommended.”
There’s also a fifth book related to the series called The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas book. In his review for The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book, Jeff Chase writes: “It’s my second Christmas with this book, and I think I’m enjoying it more this year, perhaps because it’s already feeling like a tradition. Karen’s stories, poems, and musings are full of warmth, humor, and love. There’s much to relate to here. I find myself recalling my own Christmas stories from years past. This book is a gem, made for relaxing. Enjoy!”
These Madcap Christian Scientist books can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your favorite bookstore.
I have three books of poetry: A Poem Lives on My Windowsill, The Brush of Angel Wings, and Since Then. These books can all be purchased on Amazon, and through your favorite bookstore. In her Amazon review of The Brush of Angel Wings, Nikki writes: “The author of “The Brush of Angel Wings” never fails to disappoint me. The poetry in her latest book causes a wide range of emotions in the reader, from joy to sadness, happiness to grief, humor to acceptance. Every poem is unique, yet the author’s distinct style can be found in each one. I enjoyed seeing glimpses of the author’s life through her poetry. I can’t wait for her next book to be released.”
“Karen Molenaar Terrell’s Scrapbook of a Year and a Day is, essentially, a compilation of Facebook posts written between January 19, 2020 and January 20, 2021. If I were to collect my FB posts, it would be very, very dull indeed, but Karen eliminated the silly cat videos, if she ever posted any, and has instead put together a moving and coherent account of the tumultuous year we all lived through and her personal experience of the year following the death of her father, Dee Molenaar. What I particularly love about Karen–and this book–is her perspective on things and her constant striving to live up to her ideals.
“I’m really not a dog-earrer–I find it a vile habit–and yet I folded down the corners on several pages.”
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Thank you for letting me shamelessly plug here. It brings me such joy to connect with others through my writing. – Karen Molenaar Terrell
Love is all-powerful, ever-present, all-wise, ever Good. Feel the force of infinite Life unfolding, unfettered, unrestrained, unhampered, untouched by hate and war, vengeance and ego and human history. Love and Life are All, and we all are of Love and Life, and everything Good – created for Good, by Good, of Good.
“Am I done now?” I ask. Half-hoping yes. Half-hoping no. “I’ve taught my students, raised fine sons until they were grown, written my books, taken my photos, lived through the highs, and survived the lows. I’ve climbed enough mountains and seen my share of rainbows. So am I done now?” I ask. “I want to know.”
And Love answers: “There’s no end to Me and so there’s no end to you. You’re where you’ll always be – in Love unchanging, always new. You will never be done reflecting Love’s love – whether you’re in the valley below or flying in clouds above. So don’t worry about what’s next. You’re where you need to be now – enjoy these moments you have here – beyond the when or what or how.” -Karen Molenaar Terrell
baby spider pressed against my windshield as I drive down country roads with a 50 mph speed limit and soon I will be on the freeway where the speed limit is 70
I pull over and look around in my car for something I can use to lift the baby off my windshield I find an old cardboard cup sleeve and push it under the little spider until he climbs on then I take him to the side of the road and dangle him over a dandelion leaf I watch as he lowers himself onto the leaf with his spider string and then I get back in my car and head for the freeway
sometimes it’s handy to have a car littered with cardboard cup sleeves
Principle is my foundation. Mind is my guide. Soul is my music. Life is my friend in whom I abide. Truth is my protector. Love is my mother. Spirit is my reality. I need no other. -Karen Molenaar Terrell
I woke up to find out that someone(s) had attempted to steal from me – long story involving trickery and someone posing as me in an email. Anyway. At first I was freaked out by this. But then this weird thing happened. I felt this kind of detached calm about it all. I took the steps I needed to take to to try to fix the problem, and then got in my car and drove up to Bellingham for a nice walk on the boardwalk. The sky still had pink in it when I got up there. There were goldeneye ducks and seagulls and cool patterns in the bay. Everyone I passed gave me a friendly smile for a smile. It was lovely.
I stopped at the Colophon and as soon as I walked in the hostess/server asked me if I’d like my favorite peach Arnold Palmer drink – she recognized me! And then she led me back to my favorite seat in the corner. I ordered some avocado toast and sipped my peach tea and just soaked up the happy vibes.
It came to me that I was in control of how I was going to feel. The person who had attempted to steal from me wasn’t the boss of me, and had no say in how I was going to feel about my day.
The server gave me another peach tea to take with me when I left, and I left a big tip in appreciation for the friendly kindness I’d felt at the restaurant – a reminder of all the good folks in the world with me.
Shakespeare wrote: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” And I saw how true that was today. I could choose to be all ruffled and affronted at the way my morning had started. Or I could choose to find joy for myself.
Life isn’t “out to get me.” Life is good.
(Photo below is of a goldeneye duck on Bellingham Bay this morning. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)
But I thought I’d gift him with something new for his birthday. He’s not really gone, you see. I still feel his presence here with me – not as a ghost or anything – but I feel his smile with me, his humor and his love.
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 