P E A C E O N E A R T H & A T H O M E

To those we miss & see too little of, I’ve not sent a card or letter in the last two years. Not for lack of news, but for lack of time & mental energy. This year, Troy ordered the cards – forcing me to make the time & find the energy. He’s crafty like that, my wise husband. So I’m writing this the Saturday before Christmas with hopes that it reaches you sometime in the month of December. We’ll celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary on the 22nd of this month. I’m grateful for each day, even the ugly ones. I’m even more grateful to have a lifetime to become worthy of this gift of marriage. Troy is in his sixth year as a Federal Police Officer at Fort Meade. He is not one to speak of it often, but I know he faces difficult, even tragic circum-stances in his work there serving our nation’s veterans. I’m humbled by the difference be-tween his version of a “bad day” & mine. I’m grateful to be married to someone who works so hard for this family & still manages to come home & be such an engaged, loving father to Miriam & a fixer of all broken things. I’m certain it’s not always easy. He’s spent much of the last two years riding his Kona mountain bike on single track through the Hills. He’s completed the BAM (35 mile) race twice, the Dakota 5-0 (50 mile) race twice, & won his division of the cross country race at a muddy Fat Tire Festival in Rapid. It makes my occasional yoga sessions look sad. World-builder & sage - Tolkien wrote “Not all who wander are lost.” Troy lives that sentiment – the wanderer never (or rarely) lost. He is forev-er seeking out a new path cut in the forest or some empty highway he hasn’t passed through yet. He hunts & rides motorcycles & mountain bikes to connect with those forgotten places. His wanderings are one of the things I appreciate most about him.

Occasionally, Mira & I are able to join him. This spring we camped in a wide, reaching valley in the Big Horns of Wyoming. The place was alive with wildflowers, a moose plodded daily through our camp (virtually ignored by our 130 pound “guard” dog), & a few spectacular thunder-storms painted the skies. I think we all become better people when we take the time to notice skies cut by lightening & valleys afire with purple lupines. In the summer, Troy & I joined my parents & brother on a motorcycle trip to the Red Lodge Rally in Montana. The prairies between burned at over 100 degrees, but the mountain passes still held snow. If beauty can be jarring – those passes are. In July of 2013, I accepted a position as the Exec-utive Director of the Sturgis Chamber of Com-merce & Visitors Bureau. It is a difficult, ex-hausting, all-consuming position. There are so many evening meetings & weekend events. I regret the hours I’ve spent away from Miriam & Troy. I regret how I’ve neglected so many won-derful friends. I promise to reconnect when I come up for air. But despite those sacrifices, I’m proud of the work we’re doing to revitalize this community. There have been many victories, & I’m hopeful for the future of Sturgis & the North-ern Black Hills. Mostly, I’m grateful to work among many who genuinely care about this little town. I count my staff, Kathy & Rainee, among those community makers. My thanks to all those who have helped with Mira to allow me to invest so much in this. Troy, grandparents, family, & Aunt Mollie have been invaluable. Beyond my day job, I am honored to be among those writers included in the Black Hills Literary Journal published in November. It’s the first edi-tion, & I was asked to do a reading & book sign-ing at the Gala in Rapid City celebrating its publi-cation. You can purchase the Journal & support Black Hills area writers by searching Black Hills Literary Journal on Amazon.

O ’ N I G H T D I V I N E

Last year, I completed my Master of Arts from NDSU in Communication specializing in rhetorical criticism. My thesis work cen-tered on the personal correspondences of a medieval nun turned prophetess then saint. More recently, Hildegard von Bingen was named a Doctor of the Church. She challenged popes & kings, counseled priests, & wrote extensively on faith & medicine during a time when women were brutally suppressed. She was an artist & a musician. You can still download her music on iTunes. She was a force. I’m grateful to have spent so much time with her story. In those rare empty fringe hours, I com-pleted my first novel. I’m currently seeking agent representation – so if you have any connections in the literary world, do me a kindness & send them my way. It’s a long difficult process to publication, but I’m hopeful. Not certain, but hopeful. With the completion of the novel, I’ll devote my time to sending agent queries, applying for grants to get to some writers’ conferences, & developing my freelance writing career. Finally, the center of our world is Miriam. She’ll turn four on the Ides of March – the Shakespearean daughter. She is bright, kind, & maddeningly independent. She is NOT a morning person – that’s a gift of my DNA I think. She adores books, ballet class, preschool, tacos, & PBS’s Peg+Cat. Like every other young girl (& most boys) –

she’s obsessed with the movie Frozen & sings its songs with wild abandon. She re-ferred to herself as the “Queen” when she acted as flower girl in the wedding of our dear friends, Charlie & Amelia. She’s an old soul who often senses the broken places in others before the adults around her do. She’s quick with hugs & ideas. The cats, especially our Siamese, are utterly devoted to her. Cheyenne, our Alaskan malamute, is her companion & the puller of her sled. Mostly, she reminds us that the world we’re building will be hers. And we try hard (though too often fail) to make sure that her inheritance, the emotional & spiritual sort, is one of kindness & wonder & joy. In this season of chaos & consumerism, I wish for you and yours what I want for my own family: peace, a return to the sanctity of compassion, & a reminder that the year ahead is an empty canvas worthy of the best in us. Be better than the bad news. Be kind to one another. We’ll conquer the world with that light. With joy & hope for the days before us,

Heidi, Troy & Miriam Scarlett