My earliest recollection of doctor’s offices were happy ones. My mom would drive me to Dr. Stagg’s. While she talked to the nurse – an older woman in a white uniform with white shoes and a funny white hat that looked a little like the front part of a sailor’s … Read the rest

The memorial service takes place almost a week after Memorial Day. People in sober suits and dark dresses mill about in groups talking quietly, listening, nodding. Some recognize, and some I don’t. We’re all in long white room filled with chairs. At one end, a handful of floral arrangements surround … Read the rest

“My speech is imperfect. Not because I want to shine with words, but out of the impossibility of finding those words, I speak in images. With nothing else can I express the words from the depths.”

Carl Jung

I meet Anne at the summit of Mt. Starr King in January. I haven’t seen a single soul on the trail all morning. I assume I’m the first one at the peak. But sitting on a snowbank, fiddling with a phone is a woman decked out in winter weather gear … Read the rest

What does it mean to be a dad?

Is it all the books I’ve read at bedtime?

Is it adventures I lead to wild places near and far?

Is it the lessons I teach about balancing on two wheels?

Is it the bandaids I apply to skinned knees and scrapped … Read the rest

A friend’s wife died recently. Colon cancer. I had no idea. We hadn’t talked in years. I assumed he was just one of those people who falls in love and forgets the world. I can’t begrudge someone their happiness.

Her memorial service is a study in upper-middle class values and … Read the rest

Sometimes we see something not for what it is, but by its absence.

A friend has disappeared. Phone calls, texts, even the occasional request to visit drops off. And at first you think nothing of it. But days go by. And then more days.

Busy, I guess. A call goes … Read the rest

Warm summer sun,
    Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
    Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
    Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
    Good night, good night.… Read the rest

The trees are coming into leaf / Like something almost being said;… Read the rest