On the road of life, when you can’t see what’s ahead, it helps to take a long look back and remember where you’ve been.

My grandmother said that. Or would have, if she thought of it.

I think of it every year when I take down the old calendar, transfer the birthdays and other important dates and finally hang up the new one. [Read more…]

This morning I heard myself singing, “Deep in December it’s nice to remember …”
That’s from a song in “The Fantasticks,” a musical I never saw and don’t care to recall. It was stuck on replay in my head the way some songs seem to get stuck there. Don’t ask me why.
I was just glad it wasn’t “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” or “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” I get stuck on them sometimes, too. [Read more…]

When you are little and the world seems so big, it’s hard to understand why someone you love is here one day and gone the next.

Actually, that can be hard to understand at any age. I’ve been trying to make sense of it all my life and I still don’t get it. Or like it. But I’ve come to accept it as one of the harder facts of life. [Read more…]

They say farsightedness is one of those gifts that tends to come with age. Maybe so.

In life or landscapes, in vision or vistas, whenever possible, I like to take the long view. [Read more…]

It’s not like we need an excuse to get together. Especially if it involves food, as it always does.

But this time, besides eating, my family had several good reasons to gather. The best reason? It wasn’t a funeral. [Read more…]

What’s the shelf life for a family? How long does it last?

Some people spend years tracing their lineage all the way back to Adam and Eve’s second cousin twice removed on their mama’s side.

I am not one of those people. It’s not that I don’t care about my roots. I’d love to know more about my family. It would probably explain a lot. [Read more…]

Have you ever made a decision you felt sure was right, only to end up wondering later: What was I thinking?

Second guessing. I hate it.

Recently, I left my home and my husband and the life that I love, to spend some time alone working on a novel on a lake in the mountains where I grew up.

When I made that decision, and most days since, I felt good about it. But there are moments when I have my doubts.

This is one of them. [Read more…]

At a cabin on a lake in the mountains, where I’m supposed to be working hard on a book, I spend a lot of time watching other things doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

The leaves, for example. They are busy dying. I smiled writing that, thinking aren’t we all? [Read more…]

Sometimes, if we’re lucky and live long enough, we get to make a dream come true.

I am sitting on a porch, writing on my laptop (thanks to the wonders of wi-fi) at a cabin on a lake in Carolina, North or South or maybe both. I’m not sure. The lake straddles the stateline and flows between several basins, making it difficult for me to say exactly where I am.

No matter.

I am here. And I am present. [Read more…]

It was an offer I couldn’t refuse: an invitation to speak to the Four Arts Club of Elkhart, Ind., on my all-time favorite topic: “The Art of Life.”

I like life. I like talking about it and writing about it and, most of all, I like living it, all of which I’ve been doing for a pretty long time. Never mind how long. [Read more…]