I am only one.  That’s all I am.  I am only one and I will always be only one.  I was born as one, I will live as one, and on the day of my death I will die as one.  In this journey that we all call life, I will always be completely restricted to being one and only one.  And all of those daunting realities strike me as miserably pathetic.  Sadly, I … [Read more...]

It seems that the idea of taking a stand is perpetually taking a beating.  The whole idea of taking a stand is driven by the conviction that at certain times the need to take a stand is unarguably undeniable and inescapably inescapable.  Taking a stand is taking a risk, and sometimes a big one.  Unfortunately, not many people take a stand.  But … [Read more...]

What would I do with a new start?  I mean a really new, ‘new’ start?  Not something that looks new because we’ve vigorously spit-shined something that’s old to a new luster.  Not some radical make-over of something that’s radically old so that it looks convincingly new.  Not a meticulous restoration that’s going to erase the footprints of time and … [Read more...]

She was born into an emerging America in 1890.  Through the ninety-five years of life that stood in front of her she would watch an Industrial Revolution unfold, Henry Ford roll out the Model T, and Edison light the world.  She would read the headlines of dough boys marching off to fight a Kaiser in what was originally called the ‘Great War’.  Some … [Read more...]

With the New Year we long for a fresh start.  We want to wipe the slate clean, removing the smudges and the smears.  We want to get rid of the errors, the poor choices, the misguided decisions and the bruising flops that populated the previous year.  We want to wipe away old habits, clean up destructive behaviors, sponge up toxic relationships, run … [Read more...]

Rescue.  It is hard to admit that we need to be rescued.  We think ourselves to be smart enough, cunning enough, strategic enough, and enough of whatever it is that we need to be enough of to save ourselves.  We tediously craft an endless array of things to rescue us from the things that we previously crafted to rescue us that ended up stranding … [Read more...]

Some thirty years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a part of the reclamation of a gorgeous seventy-three room colonial-style mansion, as well as the property and numerous out-buildings that were part of this massive, rolling estate.  It had set empty, hauntingly still and seemingly comatose for several decades, with suffocating layers of … [Read more...]

I don’t know how I got it or where it came from, but Mom always said it was mine.  Sometimes we are gifted small things that appear to be the epitome of small things.  Yet, lifetime treasures are always packaged in small things because only small things have enough space to hold something that large. The Christmas tree was always tastefully … [Read more...]

The holidays bring people together.  Parties, various celebrations, innumerable gatherings of various kinds all present us with opportunities to warmly engage people we rarely see throughout much of the year.  Indeed, it is a natural time of joining and rejoining. Yet, in all of the merriment and festivities, old issues are given renewed space … [Read more...]