It’s time again for my annual birthday story. Writers sometimes talk of stories that write themselves. The older I get, the more elusive I find such stories to be. This one, however, did write itself. Channeling this tale brought me comfort; I hope it does the same for […]
“Churches and trains, they all look the same to me now.” Amsterdam, Gregory Alan Isakov A months old conversation I had with a friend keeps replaying in my mind. “Teenagers have this thing they like to say, ‘It’s all just movies.’” It was uttered with great concern, a […]
Heaven is real. I’ve been there, and I hope to go again. Most likely, you’ve been to heaven as well. The thing about heaven is, as soon as you use a word to refer to it, the image slips away like vapor. In fact, by using the pronoun […]
In a time not long ago, in a land both strange and familiar, two brothers walked a path together. It was a path they used often, for it led to a stream where fish swam, and one of the brothers had devised an ingenious way of catching the […]
We lost one. A close one. We saw it coming, but sometimes, if a thing moves slowly enough, it still sneaks up on you. I learned this long ago, when I lost a father. Times like this bring a clarity––a clear eye to see there is a better way […]
A hammock is the best place to relax. This is what my wife told me when I opened her birthday present to me––a woven, technicolored hammock––complete with poles, since our tiny yard lacks the requisite pair of trees. At first, I laughed at the gift, but now that […]
I could be doing anything in the world right now. The same device logging these words is capable of receiving, through its magical roots in the digital earth, enough stimulation to occupy me for a thousand lifetimes. Even now, there are several of those stimulants beckoning me, like […]
The air is drenched with odors of chlorine and perspiration, seasoned with a tang of Sharpie marker. One such marker shuffles across the back of a cherub-faced girl two bleacher rows below me. The girl’s mother watches the scoreboard clock with one eye while minding her own […]
With shortness of breath, I’ll explain the infinite. How rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist. Sleeping At Last –– Saturn My son uttered a set of words the other day that seemed too old for his eleven-year-old lips –– “Every day, I get up at […]
On the wall of my kitchen there is a clock. I bought it at IKEA sixteen years ago, back when everyone thought IKEA was kind of cool. The clock has been a faithful keeper of time these sixteen years, though that’s a simple job when you think about […]
