I’m not sure the first time that it happened; over twenty years, I’ve lost count of how many times we have repeated the scene. Ginger always begins the conversation, and the statement generally comes out of nowhere: “OK,” she’ll say, “name three reasons you love me.” And I name three specific things – three the-way-you-wear-your-hat…
the more I hear the story the more I think of youthe young girl who tookthe weight of graceand carried it to termalong with the secretsand accompanying slander my four weeks of waitingare a failing facsimile ofpregnancy and preparationand I know who the boybecame while you wereleft to grow up as well some make you…
Each day is a little life, and each life is rounded with a little dark. (Chet Raymo, 41) little lives I was born this morninginto a world of possibilitieswrapped, first, in the wonderof a BLT and egg sandwich(yes, God is good)and the kind of conversationamong friends that defineswhat friends are to oneanother: the ones who…
I had a couple of errands to run before I went to work this morning, both related to my in-laws coming to visit this coming week. The first was to take our recliner to get the springs on the bottom reattached; for whatever reason, they had chosen to let go over the past couple of…
Four days on, my Advent mornings are beginning to find a pattern, a sort of sameness I hope will focus my mind and heart for the day to give me something to say when I come home. After all, as John Prine so beautifully put it, how the hell can a person go to work…
When I got home from work Sunday night, Ginger and I took our two Schnauzers, Lola and Ella, for a walk around the neighborhood. We have to go late because Lola is not much of a people person and does better on dark and quiet streets. More nights than not, I sing a little Patsy…
I woke up this morning knowing it was going to be a busy day. (It appears waking up is oging to be a theme this season.) Mondays are rebuilding days at the Duke restaurant, meaning we pretty much have to make all things new, as far as our menu is concerned. From the time I…
I woke, on this first day of Advent, knowing that the day was full, moving from church to work to writing (since my practice is to write everyday during the season), and hoping I could point my mind and heart in a direction that would give me something to say when I got home from…
We are suckers for Christmas movies around our house and, as a result, last night ended with us all watching Miracle on 34th Street (the John Hughes version) before we went to bed. In the commercial breaks, whatever channel it was kept talking about “The Countdown to the Twenty-five Days before Christmas,” which I could…
For the first time in a couple of years, I didn’t have to work the day before Thanksgiving, which meant I got to return to one of my favorite personal traditions: Pie-a-palooza. For reasons I cannot completely explain, this particular holiday compels me to bake pies. Some are for our own enjoyment, and we share…