JoAnne Scalf
Bio
I scribe stories and prose and am an author of a popular epidemiological study. I’m an artist and budding novelist on a mission to create engaging works that connect with readers.
Stories (5)
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Happiness as a good deed
"There comes a time when you roll up your sleeves and put yourself at the top of the commitment list." These words, stated by the children's rights activist Marian Wright Edelman, apply tangentially to the mask-making efforts I volunteered for back in March of 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic amid a Personal Protection shortage in the healthcare industry.
By JoAnne Scalf5 years ago in Humans
Teaching a Monarch Butterfly to Play Dead
Today we will be Citizen Scientists tagging Monarch butterflies for the annual migration. Dew-covered cobwebs blanketed the undulated landscape at the Heard Nature Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney, Texas, on a cool autumn morning in 2007. The Sanctuary sits on less than 300 acres of untamed wilderness between suburban city sprawl in the Dallas Fort Worth area less than a mile from the major Highway 75 thoroughfare. The neighborhoods adjacent to "The Heard" are comprised of million-dollar homes on 1 acre lots. Yet, looking out over the natural tall grassed clearing we pulled up to and getting set to traverse, we saw an overgrown field of chest-high prairie grasses, scattered thistle and bramble dotted with goldenrod, milkweed, Indian paintbrushes, and johnsongrass. In addition, our guide, Scott, was happy to see us all in long sleeve shirts and jeans and protective footwear like rubber boots. He dutifully informed us of the possibility of stumbling upon all manner of wildlife such as water mocassin snakes, rattlesnakes, copperhead snakes, raccoons, foxes, bobcats, and hundreds of types of insects. Including ticks, we would have tick checks throughout the day, which meant finding a buddy and checking to see if any ticks could be found on their clothing or hair.
By JoAnne Scalf5 years ago in Earth
Pillars of a Boss Mom
Where is my sucker? This is an essential question for me, a toddler when my sucker was missing. I was digging in the trash for my sucker, on a mission, singularly focused until I could find it. I was not thinking about being fearful or fearless, dirty or germy, just thinking about my sucker and not thinking about the picture, just thinking about the sucker. Then, finally, after my mother snapped a picture of my first dumpster dive, I got it; I ate it. She didn't scold me; she captured the precious moment in time.
By JoAnne Scalf5 years ago in Families
