These Are My Days

Grey hair? Check. Less energy? Check. Memory loss? Check. Hot flashes? Creaky knees? Boring Saturday nights? Damn it. Check, check, check. Yes, I have all the signs of solid middle-age creeping into old age. But recently, I discovered yet another symptom of rounding...

Standing Up

“Wait for me, Mom! I can’t get through the crash zone!” yelled my daughter over the surf’s roar. While my son and I had already swum into the ocean’s calm, she was still swirling in the water’s chaos, unable to control her flailing limbs. “Just stand up!” I hollered...

Our Not-So-Friend, Anxiety

Are you living in the wreckage of the future? Such is a descriptive depiction of anxiety. A world we make up in our heads about what could happen or will happen in the days to come. According to anxiety, this imagined world is grim. Only the worst comes about. In...

The Disempowered Child

He couldn’t have been older than seven or eight years. He walked with a large backpack, weighing down his already sagging shoulders. His eyes were downcast. His spirit vacant. She was right behind him screaming, “Don’t you ever do that again!” or “You’re going to get...

Falling Off

I fell off my horse last week. When I wasn’t paying attention, he reared up and threw me right off. I wish I had a bit of warning. Some signage in neon yellow with flashing lights … “Bump up ahead. Proceed with caution.” Nope, not even a kind hint of foreboding. Life...

Doing Pain Best

She knew exactly what I needed. All she did was sit by me, hold my hand and cry. Saying anything would have been pointless. As futile as the accidental death of my 49-year-old father. If I heard one more “It was God’s will,” or “He lived a good life,” or “He is in...