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 [...]
I can hear Janis Joplin’s raspy voice as she belts out, “Freedom's just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” I've been thinking about freedom, what we have to lose, and how we can choose to see beyond ourselves. What does it mean to be free? Why do some have [...]
I gripped the handle of the jump rope, unaware of anyone or anything around me. My stage, a wooden picnic table, my audience, the trees, swings, and sky. Song after song, I belted out the melodies from all my favorite yellow vinyl records. In those moments, I never [...]
So, how hot is it? When the Texas heat brought scorching days and humid nights, my dad would fuss and fume about the heat shriveling his tomatoes or thwarting the growth of his crooknecked yellow squash. We heard, more than once, “It is so hot you can fry [...]
