You have to have heard this: “If you cannot say something nice don’t say anything at all.” My mother told me this when I was six years old. Then she said it oftener as I grew older. She is no longer with me to admonish me when I behave badly. But that saying stayed with… Continue reading BE NICE

Our youngest son was in a bad accident yesterday.  He was on  an electric bicycle, and it caught on fire.  He was thrown into a ravine.  He is in intensive care and has multiple injuries:  broken jaw, facial bones, one neck bone, and other injuries.  He has a brain bleed, but it is not fatal. … Continue reading Our Son

All writers greet each day by looking at a blank page.  These are empty pages and writers need to fill them with words.  Some days the words just jump onto the page.  On other days the page is wordless, like spouses of forty-five years eating dinner together. Writers, if lucky, have something come to mind… Continue reading Empty Pages

My mom was due with me on May 25th.  Her water broke on March 19th.  The doctor told her to go home and get off her feet until she felt labor pains.  So, she was sick of being pregnant and my dad took her to the hospital.  She was faking pain.  In those days so… Continue reading My Mom and I

In the spring following my first year of teaching Kindergarten I began my Master’s Degree in English Literature.  I dragged myself out of bed to be at the university at the eight a.m. class.  Milton’s “Paradise Lost” was the size of a dictionary and the Bible.  The class was titled Victorian Literature.  My goal was… Continue reading Really Lost In “Paradise Lost”

Aggression comes in many forms.  It is a shape-shifting shadow of evil in humanity.  It permeates our government, culture, and international relationships.  Aggressive people wake up angry in the morning.  By lunchtime they are evil, and  by rush hour they become road warriors.  They drive their vehicles like battering rams. They start out young.  The… Continue reading Anger

When I dream, I am young enough to have fun.  I can feel the tingle in my stomach while swinging high on a swing, or pretending to saddle up a horse waiting for me, and my friends as well, all imaginary. We galluped on these “horses” all over the playground.  Or, I am running through… Continue reading Dream On

LIGHT.  My dad loved to soak up sunshine, like a lizard on a hot rock.  My mother always had at least two chores for him to do before he could take it easy in the sun. He watched the weather on the news at eleven p.m. to plan out his chances of seeing sunshine.  Winter,… Continue reading Strange and Eerie

I have spent hours and hours, days, and months waiting for a variety of events good and bad throughout my life.  There is telephone waiting, with or without Muzak piped into the wait, and cryptic messages for distracting the person who is waiting.  Those are the “La di da, press 1, press 2, 3 etcetera.… Continue reading Waiting