Just Like That

Just Like That

Big Sid must be dead now. I was a teenager when we first met and he seemed old. My parent’s age anyway. Like forties? He was big. I see him flopped into and filling an even bigger chair, his sleeves rolled up above his thick meaty hands. A white collared shirt...
The Call of the Cross

The Call of the Cross

In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever, Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river.   – Fanny Crosby 1869 Hard-boiled eggs.Jelly beans.Easter Lilies.Yuk. Add to that being stuffed into an ill-fitting Easter dress that my mother made, with a death...
The Boy From Somewhere Better

The Boy From Somewhere Better

First I remember the wind. Of course, it was my first winter in Wellfleet, huddled near the tip of the Cape on a narrow sandbar inhabited by poets and pirates. If you believe in ghosts and madmen, you would find them there, but only in the winter and the wind. I...
Sent With Love

Sent With Love

Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will. When that is done, all is done. There are very few crisis in life: the great crisis is the surrender of the will. – Oswald Chambers  My mother had a saying that would likely rattle the teeth of most...
Two Cards and a Baby Boy

Two Cards and a Baby Boy

Wham! The mail slot on the front door creaked open, then snapped shut, the mail pushed through onto the floor. As I bent down to gather it, I noticed two card-shaped envelopes and I smiled as I retrieved them from the floor. I love cards, any cards, but Christmas...