It was hard to discern where the brilliant blue sky became the ocean’s choppy waves, where the hope looked more like fear. From his little spot in the Florida sun, my dad sends me things to read: funny and interesting things…things that he has found on the internet or in the newspaper, things that he hears the neighbors talking about, or things that he thinks will remind me of something from an earlier day. Many of these things are about baseball. This year, we are going to h

We don’t have to go back to some of the hard things. We have come so very far. Last year at this time, as the cold set in, we were planning for a wedding. Our visions were often blurred through the snowflakes, which seemed to come with more strength and fortitude than in other winters. As the seasons turned, the weather didn’t, until the rain replaced the snow and ice. We reluctantly imagined wedding guests wearing rubber boots and holding onto their hats and skirts during wh

It’s the eve of your twelfth birthday. The picture in my head may have been a bit different from what I was expecting, but I should have known a long time ago to stop expecting, because there just doesn’t seem to be much sense in that. I wish you hadn’t told me that you were starting to get a mustache, but I wish harder that I hadn’t looked, because I am not ready to see. I am not ready to see lots of things, but here I stand, knowing that in another birthday or two, I may ac

Four new baby chicks will be coming to the farm this spring. By the end of the summer, these new girls should be laying eggs alongside our other hens. Hens lay eggs. Roosters don’t. I was careful to repeat my request several times to the gentleman that was taking my order: “all females…two of each.” This time, I chose a hatchery out of Ohio as the birthplace of my chickens. It didn’t seem to be much of a factor at the time, but last year, when I picked up my “reserved pul