I Feel Like

I feel like the villains are scheming to blow up the planet from their rocketship, and I’m trapped in a basement tied to a sewer pipe.

I feel like someone cut off my hands, and they’re laughing at me through the walls.

I feel like the bomb shelters were not dug deep eno… Read more...

The Right Metric

I was moping around the house, half-sick and taking stock of all of the things I should have been doing but wasn’t.

Clean off the bookshelf
Leaky showerhead
Touch-up paint for the door trim
Laundry

“Can we read tonight, Daddy?”

Hazel’s to-do list is a mile long … Read more...

Two Prisoners

Sunset over an Australian Beach

I don’t get get. How can you smile in here?

Because smiling is better than frowning.

But we’re locked in this room all day and beaten and tortured at night. We’re fed the same rotten food every day. We are ridiculed and yelled at. We are forgotten.

This is all trueRead more...

A Little Light Left

Light through hole in dark room

Her church was the first to call.

“She’s forgetting things.”

It was sort of blamey, at least that’s how I took it — me, one of two sons, 22 hours away. Or two flights and a long shuttle ride, which has to be coordinated ahead of time.

The last time I we… Read more...

The Check-In

“Hey, just checking in. How you doing?”

Man.

So few words, so much impact.

So much love around you in an instant.

Whether you’re good or not so good, you feel seen, remembered, and held.

And if you haven’t gotten one of these sweet sweet checkins in a while, th… Read more...

Beautiful Science

Red blood cells

What if Love was actually Science…

…Our minds subconsciously and frenetically working to line up our own idiosyncracies and aspirations with those of another, resulting in an explosive neuro-chemical overload, caffeinated synapses, an emergency signal to the body to br… Read more...

Good Neighbors

I was just about to sit down and look up the latest political nightmare when I got the text I’d been waiting for.

“Okay. We’re back.”

I threw on my shoes and ran down my steps. As I hit the sidewalk and saw their dusty car sticking halfway out of the garage … Read more...

Music Is Magic

Gold saxophone

Nothing can amplify or transform a mood like music.

John Coltrane can lull you into a trance. Taylor and Olivia can help you feel less alone. Nirvana and Alice in Chains can work you through a bout of angst you can’t shake. Michael Franti can turn a tired day in the hammock … Read more...