I keep finding tender purple pansies growing in corners of my yard where they were never planted. Stubborn and fragile, cheerful without cause, they remind me of Caroline. Purple was her favorite color. She used to help me plant the pansies every fall, or at least I think she did, because too many of the …
The children were all tucked into their beds, and my wife and I were settling into that blessed sliver of time when all is quiet in the house and we are actually awake to enjoy it. Then a strange sound drifted from the baby monitor. A gaspy, sucking kind of sound. I raced up the …
Despite what you might think, doing taxes together is not a good means of drawing close to your spouse. I can see how one might expect otherwise, that it could foster a “You and me versus the World” mentality, or simply give occasion for one spouse, say the one who doesn’t have to get up …
If you had to pick the single most demoralizing word in the English language, what would it be? I’ve had a variety of single words hurled at me over the years, but the one word that can most effectively take the wind out of my sails comes in the form of a question. That word …
The very first order given to us by the Almighty was: Don’t touch. Are you listening to me? Hands to yourselves. Don’t. Touch. Very, very bad things will happen if you touch that tree. See here, I’ve given you all these other trees, covered with yummy fruit. Mmmmm. Go enjoy the garden. Ride an elephant. …
