Knowing all that, for some reason, I’m beginning to have a need to see a game — to experience America’s pastime once more. I was never much of a sportsman. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Being the fastest kid…

Don’t begin your writing career by trying to rival John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath or worse, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Okinawans lead long lives. Here in the USA, we’ve been told that longevity is related to eating healthy, exercising…

Her face contorted with noiseless laughter, so deep I worried a lack of oxygen might damage her brain. The line in the dirt had been drawn. On one side stood my husband, the official of the race, assisted by our…

Then the path turned and led us straight up a hill covered in wildflowers – mountain heather, Indian paintbrush, rosy spirea, yellow broadleaf arnica, bluebells, and more. Sometimes, when a big thing is missing, little things have their chance to…

Heck, I usually see my favorite hairdresser JP every three weeks, so I had no idea how bad the gray actually was. This era of the COVID19 virus has been very frightening but also very humbling – incredibly humbling. It’s…

Running from one department store to another, I tried on dozens of hip outfits, and each one made me feel like I was modeling a Halloween costume. I was talking to my brother on the phone the other day. “How…

I wanted to be able to drive through town, launch my own craft, and dance with the wind once again. I couldn’t dismiss the thought that the little sailboat looked remarkably like a battered mixing bowl. Wide and round-bottomed, it…

That was his mistake because by the end of the day I had caught fourteen bream and two decent sized catfish, and he did not catch anymore. After seven crazy weeks in the house avoiding personal contact with the outside…

Knowing that my friends are going through the same things means I always have someone to talk with about it, someone who knows exactly how I’m feeling. On a Tuesday evening last September, I was at my 10-year-old son’s Boy…

So, as soon as the weather breaks, and there is even a hint of summer, I’m digging out the beach umbrella, gathering up a blanket, packing a lunch into a cooler and I’m heading out for a day at the…

After sorting the nails and screws on the top of the bench, a ray of sun burst through the narrow window of the tiny basement room, illuminating the edge of something wedged between the workbench and the wall. Just two…

The path was stony, littered with manure, and presented many tripping hazards, especially for those of us who were young when Bruce Springsteen was young, which was the whole group. The flight from Cape Town to Kasane was uneventful except…

The past few weeks have certainly been a way to unwind, slow-down, and clean out, while surely being one of the most stressful situations of our lives. “If I only had more time,” “If I could only catch up on…

There was a time when flying so petrified me that I could barely step into an airport, even if I was just seeing someone off. I love to go on vacation. My problem is the getting there. I hate to…

Before David could retire, our church was packed for his funeral. I jerked awake alone in our bed meant for two. Donning my robe, I hurried to the kitchen to make French toast in memory of my late husband David’s…

I couldn’t take the same paths my mom traveled because that would mean acknowledging her choices and agreeing with them. I’m thirteen years old, riding in the backseat of my parents’ Chevrolet Celebrity with my sister. We are headed south…

And then one day it happened. I would be tested to see just how great a Grandpa I really was. I wasn’t lucky enough to have had a real relationship with my grandparents. By the time I was born, my…

We schemed, we triumphed, we loved hopelessly, all the facets of life as set forth by the Bard. The foam swords are non-negotiable. Discount-store toys from years gone by; they reside in the serious, mission-style umbrella stand in my entryway.…