“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe   It’s his 95th birthday, and he’s just finished getting dressed for our outing. Preparing for this (or any) outing takes my Uncle Donny much longer than when he was a younger man. My brother, sister-in-law, and I have all traveled here to celebrate his birthday. We sat at the kitchen table fifteen minutes earlier, visiting with him, Aunt Betty, and Cousin Russ, and we probably should have cut that part of the visit short a little earlier to give Uncle Donny plenty of time to…

Summer officially ends on September 22, and the chill in the air this morning was a reminder that autumn will arrive soon. I love fall and everything that comes with it: the trees proudly display their leaves in stunning shades of orange, yellow, red, and brown, the cool (not cold) temperatures that, for some reason, make the air feel cleaner, a hot cup of coffee on a brisk Sunday morning, and most of all, the feelings of nostalgia that every year accompany the arrival of the season. Halloween is another thing I love about fall, and just like Ralphie never forgot his beloved Red Rider, I will never forget the…

I just had a birthday, and with it came the realization that I am now a member of a group I never imagined I’d belong to: The Old Maids Club. You remember the Old Maid card game, right? It’s the one where the loser was the one who ended up with the Old Maid card—but how many of us considered that we might one day be the Old Maid? I certainly didn’t see it coming, and, like most kids, thoughts about the future didn’t go far beyond the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog. If mention of the Christmas catalog, with its legendary toy section, gives you the warm fuzzies,…

This upcoming September will be sixteen years that I haven’t had a drink of alcohol—not even one sip. I don’t say this because I’m looking for kudos or words of congratulations; I say it because I wanted to write about one of the things I had to do when I first quit drinking that helped stop me from falling off the wagon. It is something they talk about in recovery programs, but I didn’t learn it through a program. As with almost every challenge in life, I figured it out the hard way (which I’ve written about before). I watched football regularly, and my favorite team was the Miami Dolphins.…

A few weeks ago, I was on the internet and saw something about what it means when you find a white feather. Because I never see white birds (other than Seagulls at the beach), I thought the chances of coming across a white feather seemed slim, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I quickly forgot about it and continued with whatever I’d been looking at or for. Several days later, I took my dog out to do her business, and when I looked down, there it was—a single, pristine, white feather. I stood there looking at it and thinking how curious it was that I’d seen that thing…

There’s a one-word question people often ask that rarely elicits a concise answer—that question is: Why? Have you ever asked your teen why they did something they shouldn’t have or didn’t do something they were supposed to do? If so, chances are that the answer you received was, “I dunno.”  Your first instinct may tell you that they’re being a smartass or maybe just giving you a lazy reply, but if you think about it, how many times have you asked yourself the same question about something and found that you struggled to come up with a better answer? This is especially true when you want to know why something…

I love a good quote, especially when the author of the quote used a quill to write it. What constitutes a “good” quote? Well, for me, it’s one that not only rings true but also gets me thinking—recently, I came across this one that checks both boxes: Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (side note: What a GREAT name) There are less eloquent variations of the same concept, but those tend to compare actions to words. We’ve all heard, “Actions speak louder than words,” and the reference to the opposite—hypocrisy—in, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  But I like this…

I recently went through the camera roll on my phone to do a bit of cleanup. You never realize how many useless and nearly identical photos you have until you look at each one to decide whether to keep or delete it. The number of screenshots of ads for shows and movies I thought I might like to watch soon (some more than a year old—yikes) was ridiculous. And there were even more screenshots of cake and other very bad-for-you dishes—things I shouldn’t even be looking at, let alone making. There are some photos, though, that I will never part with, and while doing my cleanup, I came across a…

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I’d save up my weekly allowance, and when I had enough saved, my mom would take me to the local toy store, where I would buy one of the dolls. The dolls had cute names like Strawberry Shortcake, Apple Dumpling (a baby), Blueberry Muffin, and Huckleberry Pie. On top of being adorable, they were scented, and they smelled heavenly. Then, there was the Strawberry Shortcake bakery, a must-have for any serious collector; it came with a little oven, some fake pies, some garden utensils, and plastic strawberries, among other things. But there was one small problem with the…

It was the end of the eighth-grade school year. I stood in the garage in tears, pleading with my dad while he folded his laundry. Before that day, he’d agreed to let me go on a three-week vacation to Iowa with my best friend and her family. I know, I know—Iowa—for vacation? When you’re fourteen, and your friends invite you to go somewhere, it doesn’t matter where you’re going or what you’re doing. What matters is that you get to hang out with your buds. Three weeks of uninterrupted hanging out would be pure bliss, and the thought of missing that was inconceivable. That day, standing in the garage, I…