Jodi Hills

So this is who I am – a writer that paints, a painter that writes…


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Tiny miracles and small underpants.

If you find a pair of underpants that you love, it’s nearly guaranteed that they will stop making them. The same is true for bras and any kind of make-up. I’m sure there’s the male equivalent, but this is about me. 

Being nearly out of my well advanced stock from Herberger’s (my mother saw to that), I recently went to Target to try something new. I picked out a pair. There was a good deal if you bought three, but who needs three if you don’t end up liking them. I bought one pair, with the idea that after a test run, (and yes, running would be a part of the test — if you read about the airport disaster of 2022, me running, dragging carry-on with one arm and holding up underpants with the other, then you know), I would return to get my deal on three more. 

Holding their place on waist and in my heart, I did return to Target, only to find two. The clerk on the floor folding baby clothes in the aisle across the way on Christmas Eve was certain they were out and really had no interest in helping me look for the third, the last wiseman of my Christmas miracle. I searched through all the sizes, no more smalls. Only two. I bought them at full price.

I mention it only because life is about change. When Herberger’s left years ago, so did I. Not for the same reasons, but still…  

We get to choose how we see things — No, I didn’t find three together… but I did find two! And one before. And I like them.

It’s the 26th of December. That could be a letdown for some. I remove the tiny hangers from my new underpants, and get ready for the day. The house is still filled with love. The possibilities are endless. And I can move about, run even – hands free – this is my tiny miracle. And I choose to celebrate! Happy 26th!


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Crossing over.

Crossing over.

I write a lot about being brave. Some people might think, wow, she is never afraid. (insert nervous laugh here). That is hardly the case. There is no bravery without being afraid. And that’s what makes being brave even more miraculous!

In anxious times, it can feel like I’m “on the ledge.” And I often heard, even repeated, oh, I have to talk myself off the ledge. But I realize now that I have to forget about the ledge. If you talk yourself down, the ledge is still there, with no real answers. So what is the answer? I started looking at the different situations not as ledges, but as bridges.

A bridge. Still a bit of the unknown, but a choice.

And it’s all about the choices we make. We can choose to stay or to cross over. We are offered these bridges as gifts. It’s not always easy to dare to cross over, to get through, to get beyond… but it is a choice. So many rivers to cross. And with one step, we choose… we decide to love, to be loved…
we decide that we are actually worthy of the giving and receiving… we choose to live…and we cross over… we cross over to the beauty that lies ahead. What a journey!

Paul Cezanne wrote to his brother about the Pont des Trois Sautets — “There, there is more freshness…” More than a century later, I crossed this bridge to begin my new life in France, my fresh new life. People often ask me, weren’t you afraid to move there? The decision was not a ledge, I say, it was a bridge.