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The view from where I sit
It is not the day of her passing, though my mother is much on my mind. She is here, as I pad around the house to the ticking of the wall clock that brings me back to mornings in her kitchen. Today, I write from a chair I rarely use. It is most often the […]
As plain as the nose on my face
It’s been bumpy around Ye Olde Homestead of late. Cycles of teen stress, silence, a talk, followed by improvement. Two or three days later, the cycle repeats. Fortunately, I have plenty of shoe dye for the gray hair. And far more patience than I ever realized. I also have a usual go-to solution. A great […]
The Forest for the Trees
We were pressed for time. Again. While my son finished dressing and filling his backpack, I put a plate of fried eggs and toast on the table. Orange juice next to it. I paced a little. I hate running late. He swallowed down breakfast and gulped the juice, grabbed his things, asked for the car […]
Permission to Fail? I Don’t Think So.
My son got home late last evening. I wasn’t happy. He wasn’t happy. After his 13-hour day, with plenty of homework ahead, he looked tired and discouraged. His reason for being so late? An informational session on a scholarship program, and its first set of qualifying exercises. He perked up when he talked about it, […]
Random Acts of Parenting
I thought it would be a quiet weekend. It was. A little too quiet. My son seemed off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Though he had friends over one evening, there were two nights in a row when he was up at strange hours, walking around. Not his usual behavior. But with adolescents, […]
News
Yesterday I was doing some editing and talking on the phone, when I was told to look at the news. A man had taken hostages at the Discovery Channel just outside of Washington, DC. There was a gun, and possibly explosives. I got off the phone. I put on CNN. I watched, and then had […]
Flipping the switch
On parenting, on pending Empty Nest, on making a difference.
The Problem with “Positive Denial” is Denial
Positive attitude is one thing. Denial is something else again…
Travel Day
It’s here. Again. A day of last minute laundry and packing, goodbyes, airports. The house, suddenly so quiet, as my teenager prepares to fly back to college. To begin his sophomore year. It was an evening of more loads of wash than I can count, the heap of luggage in the living room finally emptied, […]