Our kids play our hearts like harps. Honestly, I never thought there’d be so much to ponder – the comings, the goings, the tuitions, the breakups, the weddings. We pulled out the big stash of family...

At this stage of my life, it’s probably time to start tracking down old friends and paying back the money I owe, then sit around with them murdering the truth about our younger days. We’ll embellish...

I like the lull of mid-July — the hitch, the hesitation.  I like a day with nothing pending. The eggs are bubbling slowly on the stove, and you can smell the coffee and the toast. Just for kicks,...

By the time I was 6, my parents thought there might be something wrong with me. By age 12, they were certain. By then, I was playing in an oom-pah band, in our rustic little village 30 miles outside...

Random thoughts while waiting for the charcoal to turn gray:   Life is full of unheard hymns. — Best mood lighting:  a summer sunset. — Best inflation expert: A parent with a $400...

Drinks on the patio. Something on the grill. A Netflix movie to be determined later, like a low draft choice thrown in at the last minute. The marquee at the local high school says “HAPPY SUMMER,”...

She is the kind of woman you want to kiss on a train platform, as she darts off to the big city while you go back to the cabin to finish answering fan letters about some new novel that, frankly, isn’t...

Let me tell you a little about my old man. His fingers quivered when he knotted a necktie, and he wasn’t as patient as he could’ve been in traffic. I seem to have inherited his affinity for being...