I walk around the outside of my house at 9 pm to dump the kitchen trash in the trash can. It’s breezy and the remainder of the leaves are...

My grandfather was a storyteller. Whenever he launched into a story at the big family dinner table, everyone listened because, one, he...

Since I started writing two and a half years ago (has it been that long??) I’ve taken Thanksgiving week off. Instead of writing, I put...

It’s tough stuff out there in the world right now. The thought of a national day of thanks, which is on the near horizon here in the...

I’ve been looking at the present moment from a bird’s eye view — scanning the scene above, down to what’s in front, with as much...

When I was thirteen, my friend Cheryl invited a small group of friends to her family’s beach house for a week one summer. It was as...

The other day I walked to the middle of my yard, looked down, and asked the grass what it was learning from being stuck to the ground. “I...

I was half-reclining on an outdoor chair. I had a small, low table to my right with a mouse pad and mouse. I had a table to my left with...

My desk sits below a window in my home. While I work, I might look out to take note of a worrisome storm, or simply enjoy the slice of...

I set the plastic storage container on the table. It was big enough for one pair of shoes — an awfully small space to hold what would...

Avi Loeb, you got me into a pensive, slumping pause. I read your article regarding the loneliness that’s instinctual as we inhabit such a...

Writer or not, why are we such hasty authors of our own lives? I think it’s fair to say you’re a writer as soon as you realize writing is...

My phone said to me the other day, “Mom, I want to go on vacation.” What a great idea, I thought. “Honey, I love it. Let’s figure out...

I don’t know if you’ll be with your husband and son at a pool hall, working on your cartoons while the other two play eight-ball, when...

Today I noticed my walk while walking because the imaginary person I usually talk to kept dropping to the side of the trail. Instead of...

What is greatness? I’m listening to Brandi Carlile, an American folk-rock singer, harmonize with her two bandmates, Phil and Tim...

I’m not a dinosaur per se, but I have dinosaur emotions. In fact, we all have dinosaur emotions. Especially married people. I have a...

My son and I have a Space partnership. It’s subtle. It involves meteors and the International Space Station. I ask, “You want to run...

There’s a fellow at my local pool, in his early to mid-twenties, who’s quite a swimmer. But more so, he’s a decorator extraordinaire. He...

The other day I looked at the corner of a room in the house I’ve lived in for twenty-three years. The rocking chair was...