Here’s the truth. I do not like horror movies. No. I will be the first one out of the room, head under a pillow, eyes shut tight. My heart still races when I think of The Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs. Did anyone else in the theater [...]
If you have been with me for a while, you know I am a lover of words and stories. I read them. I write them. I love them. When I taught middle school (that delightfully awkward age around 13), my daily challenge focused on convincing a bored and [...]
Three generations of women traveled across the Atlantic to fulfill a dream and a promise. A promise made to a nine-year-old when she wanted to be a part of the “girl talk.” That promise became a dream to travel together and experience the wonder and magic of Paris. [...]
Hint: You can’t stop it. We don’t enter the world with a sense of time, how it passes or what it even means. Babies wake up, get hungry, and want to be fed and changed. Comfort is important. Young children don’t comprehend the concept of an hour. Ask any [...]
I made a list of what July keeps. July reminds me to lighten my thoughts, make time for play, and relish all that is good in the world. Awe and wonder never take a vacation. What does July keep? A few words: Splashing. Sun. Shade. Sticky. Silence. Sunsets. [...]
Today, freedom occupies my thoughts. Who is free? Who is not? Why not? What does it mean to belong to a country, a state, a community, to myself? I remember my visit to the United States National Archives, gazing in awe at the Declaration of Independence through the [...]
I come from a long line of creators. Not the famous or recognized, rather, those ordinary, everyday people who see what's needed—the functional and the beautiful. My grandmother rarely sat still. She tended her vegetable and flower gardens, quilted, and crocheted doilies. My mother and all of her sisters [...]
Charlels Dickens could well be talking about today in his opening to A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was [...]
I don’t know anyone who would argue against kindness. Without imperative data, I would guess that if you ask a random sampling of people in your local supermarket, they will all agree on the value of kindness. Then, at least one of those individuals might give a loud [...]
Whenever I feel adrift, I clutch the lifesaver of memories and can’t help but smile. My favorite? Any meal with the people I love and cherish. "So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our [...]
