ruminations
By Mavis Fodness, reporterApril 10, 2024Steps through life are very straightforward. As children we’re told we’ll attend school when we’re old enough and we’re encouraged to achieve a high school diploma. Then we embark on a 50-year journey working at a job or advancing a career before retiring. Some of us get married, have children and become grandparents. And then we die. Instructions for the first three-fourths of my life have…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMarch 20, 2024Next week the Star Herald will publish its annual Home, Lawn and Garden special section. For this year’s feature in that edition, I interviewed Madison Ziegler who recently started Carzel Interior Solutions in Luverne. Among other things, her business finds solutions to the clutter we tend to collect in our homes. After talking with Madison, I’ve decided to do some decluttering by joining…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterFebruary 28, 2024In an era of political correctness, I’m happy to see a state agency is not shying away from humor, and it comes from an unlikely department: the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Eight years ago, the Department of Transportation began “Message Mondays,” where the state’s electronic message boards along state highways and interstates display safety messages to travelers. The target…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterFebruary 07, 2024Attending last week’s Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention reminded me why I chose a career in newspaper journalism. Being a conduit for information speaks to my creative nature and fits my personality, and the like-minded conference attendees rekindled my news passions. They include an eagerness to tell people about exciting news, a sense that what I do actually matters and pride in a…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJanuary 17, 2024For the new year, I am participating in a 12-week Healthy Human Challenge with about 120 like-minded individuals. Daily points are assigned for meeting our nutrition and step goals. More points are added for drinking water, getting enough sleep, and listening to a self-improvement podcast. I’m motivated to amass the 2,600 points necessary to fulfill the three-month challenge. One thing I’ve…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterDecember 27, 2023Last Tuesday the Star Herald newsroom received devastating news from the Luverne community. Josh Stroh, a 15-year-old student at LHS, died at home, another precious child lost to suicide. Our hearts instantly hurt, the shocking news momentarily bringing office chatter to a halt. In the silence, the news began to sink in and my reporter instincts began to rise. I asked myself, is this incident…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterNovember 29, 2023Spending time with my grandchildren over Thanksgiving brought home the fact that they never sit still. If they needed to get somewhere, they ran. Running, to children, is second nature. Running, to an adult, means relearning what used to come naturally. I want to regain that carefree feeling of my childhood, where I could run for what seemed like miles with very little effort. For several…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterNovember 08, 2023Several times I’ve watched Chelsie Hermsen’s YouTube videos. I’ve learned she is funny, poignant and a realist. Never mind she uses a wheelchair and her cerebral palsy slows her speech. The spunky 38-year-old started her own channel in March, regularly producing and posting videos. Her goal: To reach 300 subscribers. She currently has 65. I don’t know Chelsie personally and only became aware…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterOctober 18, 2023Members of the S7 Wellness Group (which includes me) have been challenged this month to get more individuals signed up for our virtual health group. For each new member we attract, we’ll receive $100 — that we can split with the new member. I thought I would give the challenge a try and completed the required Facebook posts about my own wellness journey that began a year ago. At that time, I…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterSeptember 27, 2023A teal-colored envelope arrived in our mailbox last week, days after our farm dog, Lucy, was struck by a car. The card inside read, “There will forever be a place in your heart for such a good and faithful friend.” Its message brought tears, and they spilled over to sobs when four squares of paper slipped out of the card. Inked on each square was a single paw print – for each of Lucy’s four…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterSeptember 06, 2023The weather this past Labor Day weekend met (and even exceeded) the predicted hot and humid forecast. To beat the heat, I spent a portion of Sunday at a water park with my oldest grandchildren. We happily joined other adults and children who chose to don swimsuits and jump into the cooling water. As I looked at the faces of the other adults, I noticed not many were old enough to be…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterAugust 15, 2023As I stood at the starting line of the Celebrity Donkey Races at the county fair, a feeling of doubt came over me. Doubt that I could even get on this animal’s back. Doubt that Ex-Lax (the donkey’s stage name) would even want me riding him around the course. I was wrong to doubt. When organizers announced that the women riding in Heat 3 were to go counter-clockwise around the course, I gained a…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJuly 18, 2023For more than a decade I’ve been mad at God. It seems funny to be mad at someone you’ve never met or really know if he’s even real. My Christian upbringing, however, says he is there and, thus, he is the one I am directing my anger toward. My sister died unexpectedly in 2011 and I’ve never forgiven God for taking her away from her family. We all prayed for a miracle that she would recover and…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJune 20, 2023Half of 2023 is already behind us. Almost six months ago, I “double dogged dared” readers to get off the couch and become more active and not to say “no” to a physical challenge. Now it’s time to check in to see where everyone is. With six months left in 2023, there is still time to reach those goals set earlier this year. I recently revisited my goals, and you know what? I’m doing pretty good.…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMay 23, 2023I have a good friend and co-worker who’s hurting. You’d never know there’s something wrong or amiss about Lori as she continues to handle editor duties without missing an issue. Except I see the occasional cracks in her strong facade and the forced smiles of someone who’s grieving. It breaks my heart because I wish I could do more to ease her pain. When Lori decided to take a little time off this…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterMay 02, 2023Each day in May I’m walking at least 9,000 steps, and walking more than four miles a day allows for a lot of thinking. A recent New York Times article with the headline, “Lean into negative emotions. It’s the healthy thing to do,” has me thinking differently. It appears when we experience a bad feeling, we don’t have to love the feeling. We just have to try to feel neutral about it. The study…
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