I read the news, so I know. Children are starving in Gaza and Ukraine. In Ethiopia and Nigeria and the slums of Mexico and on the border of my country. There is no clean water or safety or protection for refuges of any age. The world is cruel and frightening. I live an unusually peaceful […]

I wake up to the silence of deafness. It’s 6 am and cool, but there’s warm pressure against my spine. Lying on top of the blankets, Disco stretches her lean body against my back. Almost five years ago, a six week old black short-haired fostered puppy climbed on my lap and fell asleep, I trusted […]

“No more heroics,” my son Anthony says. His brother David would say the same. “No. More. Heroics.” I hear him. I’ve never been sick like this. I’ve never felt so helpless. Anthony lives three miles from me and drove me to the ER when I couldn’t breathe. Then I spent a few nights at home […]

November 6, 1893 (Chicago) I’m nine years old, and I’m scared. Papa died yesterday. Momma tries to hide her tears, but who will take care of me? Who will pay for my voice and piano lessons at Julliard School of Music? The family had a plan for me, but now I’m a half orphan. What […]

On a rare sunny April afternoon, I sit on a round stone near Vic’s cairn and watch the nearby stream. The forest floor is brown with last fall’s leaves. I notice a flash of orange. A butterfly rests on a leaf in the middle of the path, opening and closing its wings while I fumble […]

It will probably be cloudy here, because it’s March in the NY Finger Lakes. Still, on the off chance we have a clear day, I prepare for the solar eclipse. My home is near the Path of Totality. Even if clouds are thick and I can’t see details, I’ll probably experience a noticeable change in […]