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.)
“Old age” comes little by little, I think – little surrenders of who we are to the experts and authorities, to convenience and comfort – someone tells us we need to stay out of the sun, to eat only certain foods, to travel only at the right times and to the right places, and to wash our hands after every handshake and human touch – and we listen and obey.
And so we spend our days in “preventative” exams – counting the pills into our trays – hoping to increase the number of our days. And little by little we relinquish the small pleasures that make life meaningful – the joy of adventure, noon-time lunch with our faces turned towards the sun, whipped cream on our cocoa, shaking hands with new friends, and listening to our own hearts to create lives worth living.
And we lose our lives in a fear of death. – Karen Molenaar Terrell (Originally published January 8, 2017)
