It’s New Year’s Eve. I was passing through our living room and stopped for a moment, as I often do, and gazed at the display of our long life of love together. There on the wall is the beautiful portrait of my beautiful wife on the occasion of our 50th Anniversary, the photo taken by our […]
To Ponder
Letter: Navigating Our Way Home
“He who tells the number of the stars, calling them all by their names, heals the broken in heart, comforts their pain and sorrow.” – Psalm 147:3,4 “When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home.” […]
Letter: A Bar of Soap for Christmas
No, the soap wasn’t for that. So, let’s just move along here and make a clean break with what you were thinking. I opened a lovely little package tied with a bow, a gift to me from one of my wife’s sisters. It was a literal bar of soap. Tears formed instantly. My sister-in-law knew, […]
Across the Fence: Chances and Changes
Another year is about to end. It was filled with ups and downs, pretty much like a roller coaster ride. For me, it was also filled with an extreme amount of writing in order to catch up with the schedule I set myself as a novelist. I’m finally back where I wanted to be and […]
Letter: When You No Longer Have A Script
Snow White, Prince Charming, Geppetto, Grumpy and many, many other fictional fairy tale characters are ripped from the pages of every child’s bedtime reading and relocated to a fast-forwarded future where they no longer know how their plot is supposed to end. Their lives are interrupted. They no longer have a script to follow. It […]
Death By Coconut – A Dr Weirdo Short Story
I was about to start lunch on a lovely Sunday afternoon, when our hand cranked doorbell brought me to attention. Normally our buddy Dr. Weirdo (not his real name) would think nothing of stopping on a Sunday morning and chatting. It didn’t bother Rose and me too much, because he usually supplied donuts and wonderful […]
Letter: Weary World
“It needs to be standing up Grandpa!” My little granddaughter reached out her hand to right the Christmas Tree. “No. Please. Leave it down.” “Why?” I was unable to respond. Threatening tears got in my way. It’s tradition in our family on my wife’s side to share hosting responsibilities on Christmas Day. This Christmas was […]
Letter: I Am Not Free
We are, as I write this, only ten days away from a whole new year and I could not wait until then to share an updated excerpt of something I wrote as time expired six years ago. “Procul, et de ultimis finibus pretium ejus.” Writing of the wife whose worth cannot be estimated, St. Jerome’s […]
Advent Calendar December 24: Nativity Scene
Each and every year, when I have set up the Christmas tree, I also arrange our nativity scene in a special place where it gets its well-deserved visibility. My husband once bought it way before we even met – it is a classical mud people nativity scene from Spain. At first, I had to get […]