Grandpa At His Best

Brown and gray mountain

I had been running around all morning figuring out how to FedEx my suit overnight so I’d have it in time.

When I opened the door to the room, there he was, laying on a single bed, on his side, knees bent, hands flat together, snugly tucked under his cheek. He lay there grinn… Read more...

Umbilical Cord

Girl riding bike in the middle of the road during day

When Evaline was a kid, I took her down to Jack London Square where the pavement runs straight for a good half mile. We brought her bike, which she barely wanted to touch, hadn’t touched since we got it.

It was early enough that there weren’t many people out, just us a… Read more...

In The Shadow of Epiphany

Landscape photography of green leaf trees

Epiphanies can be deceiving.

Once we figure out the way – Eureka! I’ve found it! – we tend to disregard all other paths. It feels good for a while but, in the fog of euphoria, we stop looking around. Holding tightly to our compass, we become crotchety.

Simply by t… Read more...

There Are Good People Everywhere

landscape photography of seashore during daytime

There are good people everywhere.

Better than that.

Everyone is changing,

like the glint of the sun reflected on the ocean:

a thousand slivers of light

wiggling gently

taking shape,

disbanding,

coming back together,

And, each one of us,

A god for all the others.

With the vibrations in our v… Read more...

How I Came To Be

Painted Ripples

In 9th grade, I was generously forced into journaling by my English teacher. In college, I eventually found my way into a short-fiction class, and was sold. I wrote all the time, was working on stories all the time, daydreaming about my characters, while real-world people talked … Read more...

The Big Idea

Starry sky

It was our mom’s idea:

to lug the sofa-bed mattress out of the living room, through the kitchen, and out onto the back porch.

The porch was small (before the renovation), so the edges of the mattress curled up against the railing and house, rolling me and my brother to the c… Read more...

Telling It Like It Is

Truth suffers a daily death in modern day America.  Random card found on a parking lot along Interstate 294, outside Chicago.

Be careful when you hear someone say “I’m just telling it like it is.”

This is a shrouded sentence, a hedge to hind behind.

They’re incorrectly inferring there is a singular truth and that they are the brave one who is willing to utter that truth, even if it… Read more...

Pink Ice Cream

Strawberry flavor ice cream in a glass

My daughter doesn’t have to think very long when she goes into an ice cream shop.

“Pink” she shouts out, pointing to whatever is pink.

Doesn’t matter if it’s strawberry or raspberry or cotton candy. She digs in and eats it, gleefully.

Meanwhile, my adul… Read more...