April 25th
Here’s another post from the past—2006, to be exact. Today’s posting was inspired by the untimely death of my grandson’s newly acquired pet goldfish, and harks back to his mom’s pet fish days of yore: Having pets teaches valuable lessons about life, death, and the importance of caring for other creatures. Over the years, we’ve […]
January 29th
This week will mark what would have been my dad’s 95th birthday. He’s been gone four and a half years now, but I still feel his influence in my world view and the values I live by. Daddy was an amazing man. Tall, good-looking, brilliant, and a bit of a nut. He delighted in making […]
December 22nd
The Three Best Gifts Every so often I’m asked about a favorite gift I was given at Christmas. I have a hard time answering that question—there are few tangible gifts that I can remember desperately hoping would appear under the Christmas tree, and few that I actually remember receiving. I do remember Christmases from over […]
December 7th
As the sixth anniversary of my mom’s death looms, I pause to think and honor the legacy of love my folks left us. My parents had an amazing relationship that spanned over six decades—63 years when Mom died at age 88, December 9, 2010. They met in a registration line at the University of Georgia—Daddy […]
February 14th
There are many important life lessons I learned from my parents over the years, and among the most useful, universal, and lasting was my mom’s admonition: “Don’t be ugly!” “Ugliness” to my mom had little to do with physical appearance and everything to do with how we were expected to treat other people. It was […]
May 10th
In honor of the day we set aside to honor our mothers, here’s a post actually written in 2010. My mom was still around, but on that day was very ill. It was a day full of emotional ups and downs, and yet still full of appreciation for all that my mom gave to me […]
April 29th
Today marks my 61st birthday, and there’s no better time for reflection on life’s lessons. Some things I’ve learned just in the last few years: Sixty-one is not nearly as ancient as it used to be. Or maybe enough senility has set in that I can believe that? I am, in all probability, in […]
March 19th
A picture my daughter posted on Facebook today reminded me of a story I’d written nearly 25 years ago about my daughter as a four-year-old. So… The picture is of my grandson, Grayson, following in his mom’s footprints: Every family has its collection of “don’t say it” words. You know, the ones that get spelled […]
January 13th
Few of us imagine what our lives really hold in store for us—as we look back at where we’ve come, the path we imagined we might follow years before rarely has our footprints on it. And in the process of looking back, we might be surprised to see the path that our footprints did take. […]
December 15th
My daughter, Merrilee, loves Thanksgiving. For some folks, the countdown for Christmas starts on December 26. By the end of December Merrilee’s already a month into the countdown to her favorite holiday—and the food that has become our family tradition. Growing up, my mom was not one for roasting turkeys. She always cooked a special […]