What a week! My inbox has been bursting with so much good will vapor, it’s as fragrant as Bath and Body Works during their 75% off sale. Here’s a sampling of this week’s bouquet: Julie wrote to say she’d forwarded my story “Same Little Legs Still Carry Me” to her sister, who, God bless her, is not only dealing with the loss of her 25-year-old-daughter, but breast cancer as well. Julie sent it to her sister to remind her of just how strong she really is. I was blown … [Read more...]
Same Little Legs Still Carry You
May 30, 2014 By
The little girl in the bright yellow tee-shirt caught my attention. Must have been nine, maybe ten. It was rainy, not a downpour, rather one of those spongy May mornings. Stationary raindrops clung where they landed, glistening spheres on feathery iris, pale and pearly white. The landscape was awash in purples, pinks, grey and green. Many shades of green. I noticed her because she was alone. This is a rare sight on a busy street during the morning rush and the little … [Read more...]
‘Cause I’m (reasonably) Happy
May 22, 2014 By
My consulting travels recently took me to Indianapolis. I posted up in an office that had been vacated just days earlier. Somebody had been 86’ed, shit canned, pink-slipped, workforce reduced. Book shelves and desk drawers were empty. (I know because I checked) There were no photos, no stapler, no box of Kleenex on the desk, no abandoned pad of Post-It notes. There was, however a small affirmation taped to the computer monitor which had been left like the skeletal … [Read more...]
Zen Dentistry and Other Acts of Courage
May 16, 2014 By
So, I was talking to my shrink yesterday. We determined that I had not seen him since 2009, as he was in his former location, not as fancy as his new place. Must be a high demand for therapists these days. I understand from whence this comes, being a card carrying member of the Highly-Functioning Merely Neurotic Club. Even we need an occasional tune-up on the couch. I did not lay down. I did lay out what I called the churn. The dreaded … [Read more...]
Random Acts of Elevator Kindness
May 6, 2014 By
On the G train heading home to my son’s place in Brooklyn Saturday night, I committed a cardinal sin. I spoke to a stranger. Well really, he started it. I was reading the playbill from the show we’d just seen, curious over why Toni Collette was the only actor to have this disclaimer after her name: “appearing with the support of Actors’ Equity Association.” “Surely she’s not the only union member in this play,” I said to Patrick. A gentleman sitting across the car … [Read more...]
Listen, Seriously, Just Listen
April 18, 2014 By
The husband and wife at the restaurant didn’t notice me staring, how could they? They were absorbed in their texting. Who were they texting? Their kids were already sitting at the table playing Angry Birds. I couldn’t help but think that this broke the hearts of the birds overhead, singing so sweet and so clear, it made you want to tip them. What I really wanted to do though, was walk over to the parents on this first warm evening of spring, and diplomatically … [Read more...]
The Reassurance We Crave
April 11, 2014 By
This is a story about bravery, bumper cars and baseball. Well, kind of. Even though he’s a diehard Dodgers fan, what with living in L.A. and growing up watching the Albuquerque Dukes groom players for the big show, my son Nate was wearing the St. Louis Cardinals hat I got him for Christmas when he took me to the airport last week. I cried when I hugged him goodbye. Every time I leave a kid at the airport, I swear I won’t cry. Always do. Such is the reality for the … [Read more...]
This One Moment
January 4, 2014 By
It was happening with so much frequency, I finally had to Google it. When all else fails, when our hamster brains stumble at the starting block of deciphering some meteoric message from the universe, as we wander through the fog which has created an impenetrable shield like a cosmic condom over our antennae, when we’ve leveraged all the drug or drink and every meditative pose or prayer we know in pursuit of enlightenment and still we come up empty handed, it’s time to … [Read more...]
He Gave Me Shelter
August 25, 2013 By
Social media being the thing we often love to hate, Facebook did serve a purpose in delivering news this week that a good friend of our family had passed away suddenly in Winston-Salem. My daughter in Memphis sent around the news to my now far flung brood and we took turns emailogizing our friend David. While their family begins the slow, unwelcome process of figuring out how life will be without a husband, father, grandfather, brother, I feel so blessed that I … [Read more...]
Twenty Seven
July 22, 2013 By
Taillights like domino dots, only red. The anticipation of what a summer night could yield as palpable as the humidity at the intersection of then and now, where I idle. At least there’s a breeze. Windows down, the heat backed off enough to coax me out of my air-conditioned, sensory deprivation pod, arm dangling out the window, hand air surfing, dipping and diving, ribbons of warmth weave through my fingers like batter. Moist. Night. Air. Motown streams from the … [Read more...]
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