#F539

I’m sitting in a PennDOT Driver’s License waiting room in Southampton, Pennsylvania, waiting for my number F539 to be called. The line for getting pre-screened and given a service number took about forty minutes, and I’ve been sitting now for about thirty minutes more. My butt is hurting from sitting in a cheap, plastic chair,

Overcast, 38º, N 8mph, wind chill 30º

Lately, when I’m writing, I go for a walk around the block about once an hour. They say that’s enough to offset the negative effects of sitting at a computer. I’m not sure that’s true, but it’s good for my soul to be outside, feeling, hearing, and smelling the natural world – and breathing in

2020: A Year That Reminds Me – We’re All In This Together

I have a feeling that 2020 is going to be one of those long-remembered years, like 2001 and 1968. Brilliant observation … I know. From the soap opera drama of our national government to the argument over masking, to the loss of many from the novel coronavirus, I want to scream at the top of

Inspiration

A middle-aged man, a stranger to me, walked awkwardly along the rails-to-trails path this morning as I ran north toward the town of Abita Springs. Just as we passed each other he yelled out, “You’re an inspiration, man!” For the remainder of my run, I thought about people and places that have inspired and lifted

The Garden of Eden

Ten years ago my wife and I attended an educational event at the University of Delaware on a cold, rainy evening. The featured speaker was Alan Bean, an American astronaut who walked on the moon during the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969. Bean resigned from NASA in 1981 to devote himself to painting full-time.

Work the Problem

There’s a lot to worry about these days. So much is beyond my ability to influence. I reached a low point on Thursday night though I knew I shouldn’t wallow in it. Friday morning when I awoke a scene from the movie Apollo 13 came back to me. At that moment in the space flight,

The Invisible Cloud

Just inside the glass doors of the grocery store, I happened to glance up at the security mirror and I saw a scary-looking, gray-haired man in a faded orange tee-shirt, tan pants and work boots wearing a brown face mask. Immediately the thought popped into my head — That old man’s gonna rob the store!

FENCES OR BRIDGES?

SET-UP — Here in South Louisiana we have a lot of water. Many houses have ditches, 2 to 4 feet deep that run along beside the street and sometimes in between yards. If it weren’t for the ditches, everyone would have water in their living rooms. I was returning from an early morning run a

I’D RATHER BE COMMON THAN FAMOUS

According to Merriam-Webster the COMMON MAN (PERSON) is defined as: “the undistinguished commoner lacking class or rank distinction or special attributes.” I don’t know about you, but all the people I know on a first name basis are commoners. They are kids, schoolteachers, nurses, parents, waitresses, engineers, retired people, social workers, writers, programmers, mechanics, librarians

WHY TELL STORIES?

“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” Madeleine L’Engle “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Joan Didion In third grade I decided that writing stories might make me live forever, or at least to 120. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, but I think