On this beautiful Las Vegas morning _ a day of “abundant sunshine,” cloudless blue skies, 75 degrees and just enough breeze to rustle the palm trees _ my heart goes out to countless victims of the tornadoes that rained death and destruction in the past few days on entire communities from the Midwest through the Deep South. In times of great tragedy, we are made more aware of what is always true, but too easily forgotten _ that we are all friends, all family, all one people. We share each others griefs and joys, bear each others burdens. Their loss is our loss, too. Take a moment with me, please, to hold them up _ our unmet friends and family who are suffering devastation this morning. Say a prayer for God’s grace to pour out upon them, along with our gifts and donations and other efforts to help. Send them  “abundant sunshine” in every way possible. And remember to give thanks that, this time, this day, you and I and our loved ones were spared.

He’s studying the image in the camera’s viewfinder (that’s been turned to face him) trying to make sense of what he sees. Suddenly, he gets it: It’s him! [Read more…]

Maybe next time I will tell you about the hundreds (or millions, I can’t say for sure, because at some point I lost count) of birthday cards that arrived this week addressed to me and the “Birthday Boy.”
That would be my husband, whose birthday (a big one, as I noted in a recent column) fell 10 days before mine. [Read more…]

It’s interesting, isn’t it, what interests us? Of all the people I’ve written about, no one has sparked the curiosity of readers as much as my brother Joe. [Read more…]

I’m not sure how it happened. It’s not like we planned it. Between my husband and me, our collective five children and their significant others, most of the birthdays in our immediate family fall within four short weeks, January to February. [Read more…]

The flight to Las Vegas, where I live, from California, where I’d been visiting my kids, sounded like tuberculosis ward.
Seriously? Who goes to Sin City when they’re sick? Don’t they know you’re supposed to wait until it’s time to go home, after you’ve partied for days, lost a month’s wages, gotten a tattoo you can’t explain, and suddenly remembered you have to go to work on Monday?
That’s when you get sick _ not on your way there. [Read more…]

When he is older, I will tell my grandson Henry this story. It is his story, mostly. But it also belongs to other children who were, like him, born into a world where one income is seldom enough to support a family, but were lucky enough to have parents who made it work.
It’s a good story. He will like it. [Read more…]

The night was cold, getting colder by the minute, forecast to drop into the 20s. In a rush, I hadn’t bothered to wear a coat, a decision I already regretted. [Read more…]

How will you be remembered? What do you want people to say about you when you’re gone? [Read more…]

I’ve been giving myself what my mother used to call a good “talking to.” It’s a kind of pep talk to remind me to count my blessings, when all I want to do is crawl up under the porch with the dogs and cry. [Read more…]