What is home? Is home necessarily a physical place? Is home a state of being? Does it have emotions? Is it linear or does it witness change? Does home move like a river, characterized by its ebb and flow? Is it ever elusive? When we think of the answer to a commonly asked question, “So, where’s home?” we automatically spout [...]
The Carlisle house. The upstairs bathroom, the kid’s bathroom, was at the top of the stairs and in the middle of the hall. A bathtub with showering capabilities and a toilet were provided on the opposite side of the double sinks and counter. I experienced life’s measurements in the bathroom. The muddy blue double sinks were separated by a light [...]
As the hours of daylight slowly lessen and the heat of sun directly overhead shifts to a dim lower angle, I acknowledge the evolving seasons as summer evolves into fall. As a schoolkid on summer vacation, time was my companion and I used it to live in those moments. My summer memories on Carlisle were made outdoors where I had [...]
My tree attraction wasn’t for just any tree. It was a particular birch tree I had grown to know in my early years – developing a kinship with its youth – planted on the same plot as I. Its delicate arms played in uncomplicated innocence, inviting me to circle around it. The poet Robert Frost wrote, “Birches” where, “I like [...]
The Chicago Tribune recently reported in an article titled, “Silicon ripple divides San Francisco,” about luxury coach bus service offered by Apple, Facebook, Google and other majors in the Silicon Valley to tech workers to get them to their jobs in the Valley. The private mass transit system appears to separate the high-tech riders with everyone else. The article goes [...]
“And we’re just about there where we need to turn around.”“Already? Really?”Flight Instructor Michael instructed me to turn left as he pointed to the circles on the instrument panel of where I needed to take the plane. Turning away from the city was difficult. I felt comforted that the city kept pace with me on my right, standing tall and [...]
“Oh hi fellas. Good morning,” I said, interrupting a male threesome. Conversation stopped and heads lifted. No sound came from their mouths except for the short cropped, dark-haired man seated. “Hi, Nancy,” he said as he stood up from his desk. The remaining two turned heads first to him and then to me. They walked out of the office, passing [...]
I’m no longer fifty. I was no longer fifty about eighteen days ago.At the end of my fortieth decade, I finally felt at peace in my own skin and proud at earning a perspective of seeing my world as half full, not half empty.But who was I kidding? I used to say after turning the half century, I would count [...]
When the above pictured house was built (1965) there was just enough foliage planted to round out the squareness in corners and soften and fill an otherwise stark landscape. I was only 3 then, my brother, Tim, 6. I wondered if that was Tim standing in the den window just to the left of the garage. It does look like [...]
It's all in the books. I've been at an impasse on my memoir. After receiving an editor's comments, of which I agree, I'm dazed to think how to go about incorporating her suggestions. "More about the birch tree." Yep, I know I've got unused "thematic potential" here, as she says. I appeared to have dropped my family members! Since they [...]