My Friend, Joy

by Gary
I can’t recall when I first met this certain friend of mine. In some ways, she seems to have been a part of my life for ever and always. But in other ways it is as if I bumped into her for the first time only this afternoon. And it’s hard to guess her [...]

I Can Smell You from Here

I’ve been a little disappointed in winter this year in Southern Indiana. The mostly mild weather has left me feeling a little cheated. The lack of snow days makes it difficult for me to accept that Spring is sneaking up on its little lamb-legs when March forgot to roar at all this year.
I realize many [...]

The Usual?

Mitchell is not a town of detours. No roads will be closed today. I don’t have to wonder what route I will take to work. There is no traffic report to consult so that I can avoid accidents that are causing congestion on the roads. The only remotely unpredictable factor is the train schedule and [...]

Create and Release

I grew up in one of the last houses on a dead end street. It was a great, little house where there wasn’t enough space to get away from each other. You had to be close to your family or leave. The kitchen was really the same room as the dining area and there was [...]

Preference and Sacrifice

“Love implies preference and preference demands sacrifice.” -Thomas Merton
It’s a very old piano. It’s tall, almost chin height, and hunkered down against the south wall. Made of dark, warm wood you need to touch each time you pass. You can almost hear its music if you pause near it, still echoing from decades of fingers [...]

Under the Snow

The snow was above my knees and my gloved fingers made the tape measure hard to operate. I had managed to wade into my front yard with much effort. I extended the tape measure and thrust it down through the snow. It read 22 inches. Who would have ever thought that an adventure as wonderful [...]

Of Crooked Thumbs and Strawberry Kool-Aid

My aunt, Mary Francis, had a crooked thumb. It was a source of interest to me when I was young and she was in her adulthood. But it was a source of endearment to me in my adulthood and she was in her golden years. That unusual thumb probably caused me to consider her a [...]