We complain longest and loudest about traits in others that we ourselves possess but are better than they at hiding, sometimes from ourselves. We tend to judge others for openly exhibiting traits we possess but restrain, such as selfishness, loudness, attention-seeking, or lying. As if our restraint erases the trait and somehow cleanses our inner…

A billion everyday choices add up to an ultimate choice.  An ongoing “Since I’m uncertain, I’ll go with my doubts” is still a certain path.

Never been so happy to see a face! This is Dan. We knew him way back when and always wondered whether we’d see him again. He was the rentals guy at the Big Mountain base lodge–before it was remodeled and became Whitefish Mountain Resort. We used to call ahead on homeschool ski days. He’d have…

A doctor once told me you don’t reap the benefits of exercise until you’ve worked out for more than 30 minutes. I believed him, and it discouraged me for years, because who has 30 minutes for anything, much less every day? Then I started doing an intensive, daily10-minute workout for three weeks and went down…

It doesn’t matter how much you actually care if no one perceives that you do.

When I fed the dogs this morning, Welby wouldn’t eat. He ran off to retrieve his bone so Caddie wouldn’t get it. He stood there helpless over his food dish, clutching the bone in his mouth. He couldn’t eat while having to guard that bone. I gently took it away from him, saving him from…

In London it’s Horlicks. In America it’s Ovaltine. My version: 1 mug hot or steamed Silk soymilk (original) and 4-5 heaping teaspoons of Ovaltine (chocolate malt), topped with a drizzle of whipped cream.

I loved them so much then. I love them even more now. These are the memories that make growing old together rich and sweet. We could barely see each other through the fog back then. We see each other clearly and beautifully now—just like the view from our front porch, then and now.

The jury’s still out on whether chocolate and caffeine harm or help us. I’m inclined to embrace the news that they reduce cholesterol, prevent memory loss, and decrease inflammation leading to heart disease, although caffeine may not be great for children. How is it, though, that something that’s harmful at 5 or 15 no longer…

You comprehend someone’s love for you only to the degree that you love them back.

The end of things is always messier than the beginning.

We wear our pain in different ways. In the clothes we wear, in tattoos and piercings, in conversations and fleeting expressions that flash by in moments when we grow weary of holding our masks in place. Even things we do to commemorate joyful occasions are memorials to moments past that can never be retrieved. Love…