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	<title>Carol A. Craig</title>
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	<title>Carol A. Craig</title>
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		<title>A Light in the Darkness</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/a-light-in-the-darkness/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/a-light-in-the-darkness/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2025 06:01:57 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays and Special Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seasons]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2218</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[There are a few things that make me smile during the cold, shorter days of winter. One is watching a daily flock of deer that peacefully graze with bowed heads in an adjacent (protected) farm field at dawn or dusk. Another is the song of warblers willfully staying behind in bare timber. 

But the one that warms my heart most ...]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>As The Wind Blows</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/as-the-wind-blows/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/as-the-wind-blows/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 06:01:20 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seasons]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2207</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[t’s November. The landscape has donned deeper shades of brown, ochre, and crimson. The trees give final bows as cold winds jar remaining foliage from nearly bare branches. Deer rut, small animals scurry, birds head south, all in preparation for change. Old Man Winter knocks loudly. Everything settles in for a seasonal nap. We humans head indoors to the warmth of home and crackling fireplaces.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>From Where I Sit: September</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/from-where-i-sit-september/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/from-where-i-sit-september/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2025 05:01:26 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seasons]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2195</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Blazing goldenrod waves me toward a favorite lakeside viewing bench. Grasses and wildflowers sport comforting familiar cloaks of gold, mauve, caramel, and crimson as early morning sunshine warms a crystal blue sky, and dew still catches a ride on my boots. The all too familiar mosquito buzzes about, hoping for one last blood draw. It’s the season of conundrum: do we surrender to autumn or continue our (loosening) grasp on summer’s last rites?]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>Lucky Seven</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/lucky-seven/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/lucky-seven/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2025 19:23:32 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays and Special Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Career]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Growing up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nursing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2182</guid>

					<description><![CDATA["Number seven… Lucky 7,” I muse and smile. “Seven, Seven, Seven,” I whisper to myself as a row of 7s skid to a jackpot stop on the slot machine in my mind’s eye. I open the metal door and move in –clogs, stethoscope, pens, scrubs– the accoutrements of life in health care. Locker Seven initiates the part-time journey I’ve now attained and coveted for years: the promise of better work-life balance for my sanity and for that of my family. ]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>That&#8217;s Amore!</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/thats-amore/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/thats-amore/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Jun 2025 05:01:07 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Growing up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2169</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[“Figlio di puttana!” Leaving my station to assess the commotion erupting in the kitchen, I stop short, seeing and feeling the floury contrail of a high speed pizza cutter whipping across the space. I remain still and watch my boss, fully immersed in a first-class Italian hissy fit of unknown origin.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>Turning toward Home</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/turning-toward-home/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/turning-toward-home/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:01:05 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nature]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2154</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Growing up, “home” was a humble abode along Rural Delivery route #2, (Box 496 to be exact), on a hill in western Pennsylvania. Along that hill lived generations of my family – grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. “Home” meant not only being surrounded by a glut of kin, but also by a combination of northern seasonal changes, the joy of woodland trails, and the ambiance of enclaves like Grandma’s house just down our driveway.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>An Angel Earns Her Wings</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/an-angel-earns-her-wings/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/an-angel-earns-her-wings/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 2025 05:01:15 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays and Special Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life cycles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pets]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2144</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[With a warm hand through soft fur, I feel a regular heartbeat turn irregular. As her labored breathing subsides, a palpable fibrillation slows to stillness, acquiesces to eternity. “She’s gone,” I quietly tell our family. Our beautiful yellow Lab, Angel, an elder at nearly 15, has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>21</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>Back In the Saddle</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/back-in-the-saddle/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/back-in-the-saddle/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Feb 2025 06:01:03 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays and Special Events]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2128</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[“There’s no way in hell they’ll pick me,” I muttered while sipping some wine and chuckling. The email declared this particular day the deadline to sign up for a triathlon club I had applied to in the past. ]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>18</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>New Year, New Resolve</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/new-year-new-resolve/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/new-year-new-resolve/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays and Special Events]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2104</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[“Put it down! Put it down! You’ll get FAT!” the middle-aged male cousin barks to me across the lawn. At the tender age of eight, I reached for another delicious brownie at our annual family Fourth of July picnic. A chubby child, I shamefully put the confection back on the plate despite it also being my birthday – the one day of the year when I should be allowed to eat whatever the hell I want.]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>26</slash:comments>
		
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		<title>Pie Maven</title>
		<link>https://carolacraig.com/pie-maven/</link>
					<comments>https://carolacraig.com/pie-maven/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Carol Craig]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Nov 2024 06:01:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Holidays and Special Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nature]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://carolacraig.com/?p=2093</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[“We’re going to do things a bit differently this year,” I replied to my perplexed mother as we started the holiday pie baking. Once known as my side of the family’s “pie maven,” my mother looked at me and scoffed: “Well that’s not the way I usually do it.” ]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
		
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