In a book I just finished, the author recommends taking a one inch square of paper — and on it, writing the names of the people you know who definitely will have your back,...

The neighbor two houses up the road from me moved here several years ago.  I heard he had come from Russia and I found out how to say “good day” in that language, though...

My parents met around the punch bowl at a gathering of the Newman Club in Madison, Wisconsin in the early 1930’s.  My dad had perfected a southern accent and when my mother asked him...

The people on my father’s side of the family came from Land’s End, the very southwest tip of Cornwall in England — very close to the village where the public television show Doc Martin is...

I sat in an office waiting room the other day, with one other person.  The man initiated a conversation by remarking that he intended to go up to one of the local mountains for...

We turn around and all of a sudden wonder who the old dude is, sitting in the car or on the sofa next to us.  And there’s a fair chance that he might occasionally...

I went to the feed store yesterday and when I walked in, there were two beautiful, large web footed birds in a big enclosure at the front of the store.  “Hello, geese,” I said...

Do you believe that we’re all doing the best that we can?  I mean each of us.  Every single one.  It’s one of the subjects that Brene’ Brown covers in her most recent book,...

We have a bunch of deer that come and go, jumping easily over our fence when they visit.  Around the back of our property is what I call field fencing, four feet high and...

Lately my neighborhood seems to have been targeted by missionaries from a couple of different religions.  They show up sporadically, sometimes ringing the doorbell and handing out literature, occasionally stopping their car to chat...