I did not remember the gifts I gave away until they were returned — It was 4 years before I could attend a family reunion. Four years of selling everything and moving across the country to attend tech school. Then, Covid and an end to all gatherings. Those years were painful. I started from scratch, without friends or furniture I slogged through school to…

I have gotten old too darn fast. — I spent a good portion of my life raising four children (in what I describe as my conservative Christian period) only to get divorced. I had to re-invent myself. Change is the only constant. I embraced it fully in 2017. I learned to say “Yes!” to new things and since that time I have had…

My Trip from Florida to the Bahamas on a Sailboat. — I had only started sailing in the previous 6 months, helping the real Sailor move his Cheoy Lee designed sailboat, Blown Away from Rhode Island to Florida on weekends, a good way to social distance and be outside, although a tad cold. I still confused “port” with “starboard.” If I…

To savor time in the garden in this month is to renew one’s hope — I don’t mean to brag But my rain barrels are full, full, full. Both of them. To the brim, 55 gallons. My compost overflows with a rich black you cannot replicate without Nature, oozing vitality, a velvet catbird nimbly nibbles from its outer layer. Not to mention the hydrangeas, their blossoms…

He is still changing with the times and making us laugh — When God was doling out dads, he gave me a special model, one with flaws and an uncanny imagination, a man whose arm and family were broken, whose nerve was severed in surgery, who learned to become a lefty to survive. This same fellow was the class clown. …

A villanelle to commemorate the community garden of Middlefield which raises vegetables for local seniors and the homeless — The art of growing isn’t hard to master; So many things seem filled with needs, wants To always have enough and some to give is no disaster. Plant something every day. Compost organic matter. Dig some furrows. Drop some seeds. The art of gardening isn’t hard to master. Then practice…

Back when I received “Sex Ed,” homosexuality was categorized as a perversion. Crow’s Feet Writing prompt #8 — Back around the time of the dinosaurs (or the 70's), when I was in eighth grade and learning from the school’s perspective how sex worked, we were told homosexuality was a perversion. I was clueless, but it got me thinking… I had a great-uncle at the time we called “Ding.”…

At a certain age, we can meet both — How To Move Up When They Know the Date of Your High School Graduation I applied for a job with my current employer. It would be for the next level up in my profession. Working in the trades, this seems like the natural next step. I thought the interview went well, except they asked quite a bit about my summer internship and then the…