Big Girl Pants

If you're like me, you've been wearing your Big Girl Pants for a long time. I'm a professional storyteller. Big Girl Pants is here to give you laughter, a great story, and encouragement for YOUR real life!

A Reason for Thanksgiving 11/11/2023

A Reason for Thanksgiving I remember writing a report in 3rd grade on the reason for Thanksgiving. Mine was a little different than Tommy Spencer's. But then, I didn't dress up in a headband with a rooster feather in it either. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/28595553

Turning With the Season: What Do You See? 10/24/2023

Turning With the Season: What Do You See? No matter what is happening in the world of man, nature has her own rhythm. Something amazing is often right in front of us, but in our rush to "accomplish something" we miss it. Take a break to listen to this story about just such an almost-missed opportunity, and then take a break to walk in nature and see what she's up to. What you find is likely to delight and surprise you. And, who can't use a little delight and surprise these days? /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/28411529

Life for Sale 10/03/2023

Life for Sale Have we gotten to the point where our lives are for sale? /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/28210529

Time Is Running Out 09/06/2023

Time Is Running Out It feels like time is running out to do what we came here to do. How are you spending your days these days? /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/27955704

Big Change 08/19/2023

Big Change When you sell your house, it's a lot of change all at once. I've been finding hidden messages at the back of the sock drawer, flipping through memories from childhood, teen times, and adulthood. Memory after memory flashes from every corner, from every found item. Some of our memories are like life preservers, they hold us up when we're in deep water. But other memories speak to all that went wrong. And those memories are an anchor that drags us down to the bottom and holds us there until we run out of either courage or breath. Our memories are our stories. And our stories remind us that each moment of our lives is a sacred place in time. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/27797487

Meeting Racism 07/21/2023

Meeting Racism I like to think of myself as discriminating (in a good way) but not prejudiced. But in today's times, it's important to think about how we contribute to prejudicial attitudes about other people based on political opinion or childhood conditioning. This is the story of how I first met racism and the way that impacts my life today. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/27529839

THE BOARDING HOUSE: A Bed and a Meal for $10 a Week 06/28/2023

THE BOARDING HOUSE: A Bed and a Meal for $10 a Week This isn't the first time America has had a housing crisis. A recent encounter with a homeless camp brought back a story about my great-grandmother. Twice widowed, she solved a problem for herself and for others. Maybe it's time to let stories from the hard times of the past inspire how we address problems today. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/27315693

Put Your Money in the Mattress 06/02/2023

Put Your Money in the Mattress I think most of us worry about money more than we'd like to admit. No matter how much we have, it seems like it's never enough. But have we entered a time like the one that made my Grandmom put her money in the mattress? Listen to her story, and mine. Maybe it's time to give that idea some new consideration. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/27026139

Never Forget: People Died to Keep You Free 05/27/2023

Never Forget: People Died to Keep You Free With all the political huffing and puffing in advance of the 2024 election cycle, the big issues we face as Americans are, again, off the table. Affordable health care, homelessness, food insecurity, mass shootings and more. Social media is slicing and dicing us like a red tomato into little voting segments. We're being fear-mongered into seeing each other as dangerous. Is that the America you want? Let's come together and prevent a second Civil War. This Memorial Day, let's take back our freedom. People died to keep you free. Honor that. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/26966769

The Hangin' 04/18/2023

The Hangin' God has a strange way of putting us exactly where he wants us to be. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/26576970

Born from Stories and Mystery 03/30/2023

Born from Stories and Mystery The formation of a human soul is complex business. As children we sift through ideas but also marinate in the stories of our family and the rituals that are passed down from one generation to the next. This is the story of one such formation. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/26394267

Cowboys and Indians 03/20/2023

Cowboys and Indians When I was a kid, we didn't play organized sports. We roamed the neighborhood like feral cats. But we mostly behaved because, back then, any parent that caught you doing something wrong had permission to punish you any way they saw fit, whether they were your parents or not, so like I said, we mostly behaved. But there was this one time when things went very wrong. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/26284836

Rescue Mission 03/03/2023

Rescue Mission After hearing a Easter sermon about "taking up my cross" I saw a cat torture and kill a baby bird. And thus my ministry to save the birds of Elm street was born. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/26121792

Life: Speeding Away 01/28/2023

Life: Speeding Away Sometimes you meet the right one and the right one takes you on the ride of your life. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/25757802

Window to Another World 01/26/2023

Window to Another World I feel all caged up by winter, until I look out my window. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/25738887

Patience: Playing the Waiting Game 01/13/2023

Patience: Playing the Waiting Game I picked the wrong year to start coloring my hair. Over twenty years ago I waited 9 months to have a baby. Now I'm waiting to have a knee replacement and feel like I'm 90. Getting old is NOT for sissies. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/25603944

Jello Cake and Santa Snack, Welcome to My New Years Eve 12/29/2022

Jello Cake and Santa Snack, Welcome to My New Years Eve New Year's Eve festivities in my childhood were exquisitely boring, the ones in San Francisco so celebratory I can't remember them, and then my husband rolled one in by having a massive stroke, but we won't dwell on that. You never really know your relatives until you spend the holidays with them. Here's an introduction to some of mine! /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/25455837

A Christmas Story: Iris in the Snow 12/21/2022

A Christmas Story: Iris in the Snow I wrote this for Appalachian Voice magazine many years ago. It's a story about a boy I knew back in the hills of West Virginia. If you're in need of a feel-good story this holiday season, this might just fit the bill! Merry Christmas from my heart to yours. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/25394970

A Thanksgiving with Moonshiners and Missionaries 11/16/2022

A Thanksgiving with Moonshiners and Missionaries I'll never forget what happened in the Zickafoose sisters cabin the Thanksgiving day the moonshiners arrived. You won't either. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/25037790

Birthday Parties 10/28/2022

Birthday Parties I never had a birthday party until I turned 25. Then gave myself one and never looked back! /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24835407

Fishnets and Mini-skirts 10/19/2022

Fishnets and Mini-skirts I was always on the outskirts of high fashion. But when the fishnet hose and mini-skirts arrived in my school, I was determined to have them! /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24739659

Halloween: The Despard Mansion 10/11/2022

Halloween: The Despard Mansion It was a dark and stormy Halloween eve when I ended up somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24651543

Bad Haircuts 10/05/2022

Bad Haircuts We've all had one: a bad hair cut that just can't grow out fast enough! This is the story of a sheep-shearing beautician who gave me just such a haircut, and it scarred me for life. (Well, not really, but I do have an un-natural fear of scissors and clippers.) /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24598008

Inner Tubes and Water Snakes 09/08/2022

Inner Tubes and Water Snakes Back when I was a kid in West Virginia, we didn't go to the pool, we went to the swimming hole, down at the bottom of Old Man Reynolds pasture. This is a story about the time we almost drown there. Best enjoyed wearing your Big Girl Pants. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24313728

A Lesson in Courage 08/30/2022

A Lesson in Courage When I was 12 I knew a woman who was bedfast with rheumatoid arthritis for 14 years. When her caregiver could no longer care for her she was sent to a home for invalids, where a difficult new thing called Physical Therapy was tried on her condition. She earned her Badge of Courage when she survived it and learned how to transfer herself from a bed to a wheelchair, open a can, and go to the bathroom by herself. We watched Star Trek together and drank Coca-Cola when got back home. She encouraged me to do the impossible when it was necessary. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24217437

What I Learned in Home Ec 08/29/2022

What I Learned in Home Ec Back when I was in middle school, we took a survivalism class. It was called home ec. All girls had to take it. The boys took shop. We learned to sew and cook; they learned to change their oil and hammer a nail. We should never have dropped those mandatory classes. Now we have young parents who can't cook a potato or change the oil in their car. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24199101

Seeing My Mother Naked 08/16/2022

Seeing My Mother Naked I don't guess that there's s a way to prepare to see your mother fully naked. I know no one tried to prepare me. I was maybe thirteen, and it just happened, on a stormy afternoon in late summer, just as I was developing my own "woman's body." Seeing her changed everything. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24065172

PE and My Period 08/11/2022

PE and My Period I learned very confusing information about sex in our "health" class during PE. When I got my first period, I assumed I was dying, since "periods" were mentioned but no one said anything about blood. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/24030330

My Boyfriend Daniel Boone 07/29/2022

My Boyfriend Daniel Boone When you don't get picked for volleyball or asked to the school dance, a horse may just end up as your best friend. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/23903568

My Friend Tiny 07/27/2022

My Friend Tiny I was rescued during a difficult year in middle school by a cook named Tiny. She taught me that the bullies torturing me were just as insecure as I was. After all the positive lessons she provided in self-esteem, I watched her give her own up to keep a man. /episode/index/show/awidowstale/id/23878857

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