By Jessica Breazeale Most evenings, you can find me outside, chair tilted back, eyes on the sky. It's my place of peace — the one part of the day where nothing is asking anything of me. And almost every evening, around the same time, the same thing happens: a line of what looks like ducks flies overhead in a perfect V. Every single time, without fail, my brain does the same thing — it flashes straight back to childhood, to The Mighty Ducks, Emilio Estevez wrangling a rag-tag

By Jessica Breazeale You've heard it a hundred times. Probably from your mama, maybe from a frustrated coworker, definitely from a friend talking you down off a ledge of self-pity: “The world doesn’t revolve around you.” Usually it comes with a little side-eye attached. But stick with me, because there’s something genuinely wonderful hiding inside that old saying — and part of it isn’t even a metaphor. It's Not Just a Saying. It's Literally True. Here’s a fun one: for most of

By Jessica Breazeale Pair of modern dice You know the phrase. Somebody's staring down a decision — a job offer, a first date, whether to say yes to the thing that scares them — and they shrug and say, "Well, I guess I'll just roll the dice." It's a phrase we use for recklessness. For giving up on strategy and letting luck take the wheel. It's the opposite of a plan. I got curious about where that phrase actually comes from, so I went down a rabbit hole. My first guess was tha

By Jessica Breazeale There's something about seeing that covered wagon roll across the screen again that just does my heart good. That nostalgia that is like chicken soup when you’re sick. Netflix brought back Little House on the Prairie this month, and I'll admit, I skipped it a few times before giving it a watch. I was skeptical at first because I thought, “we’re so past that in society.” And reboots don't always get it right. But watching the Ingalls family settle into a

By Jessica Breazeale I was recently intrigued…and then very inspired by plankton. I know. I know. Of all the things to get a woman fired up, plankton was not on my list either. But here we are, and I’m not even a little bit sorry about it. We’re currently reading Sadie Robertson’s Live Fearless together in my book club at the nursing home where I serve, and there’s a whole chapter titled “The Purpose of Plankton.” She talks about how she used to think of plankton as the low

By Jessica Breazeale My take on faith, dry seasons and a strange little plant that refuses to stay dead. I heard about a plant that looks absolutely dead but can come back to life. I was greatly intrigued. So, I bought some to test this knowledge. Yes, this plant looks like it belongs in the trash. Curled up, brown, brittle…the kind of thing you'd sweep off your porch without a second thought. It's called the Rose of Jericho. Most people know it by a better name: the Resurrec

By Jessica Breazeale Kids enjoying cornhole I stood in Wesson Park and watched something beautiful happen on Saturday. The sky didn't cooperate. The weather had every reason to keep folks home. But instead, our community showed up anyway, and that, right there, told me everything I need to know about the kind of town I get to call home. We gathered to celebrate America's 250th birthday, and there was just something absolutely fitting about doing it in the rain. Nothing worth

By Jessica Breazeale Pitcher Plant I first learned of this predatory plant when one was for sale at the Garden Club booth during Wesson Founder’s Day several years ago. I was so intrigued that I’d never heard of this plant and that it could look so otherworldly. This is a carnivorous plant that attracts small bugs, luring them in with its sweet fragrance, sugary nectar, and bright colors. Once the small insects get inside, they can’t get out because of the plant’s sticky subs

By Jessica Breazeale So picture this: it's about seventeen years ago, and I'm making the rounds as a Life Skills teacher in the public schools of north Alabama. I check in at a middle school that wasn't on my regular schedule, and the sweet office worker does what office workers do — she announces over the intercom: "If you'd like to meet with Mrs. Breazeale, please report to room 101." A student shows up at my door. But she's not excited. She's not even neutral. She is perpl

By Jessica Breazeale Nobody told the sailcat catfish what it was supposed to look like. It didn't get a memo. It didn't have a choice. It just is what it is — a common, unremarkable fish pulled from the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal waters of Central and South America. Fishermen have been catching them for centuries without thinking twice. The topsail catfish, also known as the sea catfish or sailcat has carried a quiet reputation along Gulf Coast communities for a long time

By Jessica Breazeale What motivates you? If it’s money, let me give you a hint. You’ll never have enough. If it’s fame, let me give you another hint. You’ll never be famous enough. If it’s your family, let me ask you this. Do they get the best of you or the worst of you? If you died tomorrow, would your life have meant something to someone who needed it to? Are you building something that outlasts you, or just filling time? Are you living by your convictions, or just your com

By Jessica Breazeale I have no idea why I was dreaming about this, but here we are.This morning I woke up with one thing on my mind: be a salmon. Now, if you know me at all, you know how strange that is. I am not a fisherwoman. You cannot pay me to take a fish off a hook. My fish are pets — I feed them, nurture them, watch them grow, and the only scenario where I’m eating one of my “pets” is a full-blown apocalypse. So for a salmon dream to shake me awake with a message? That