Nest

Image: Pixabay She’d laughed with her neighbor at their ridiculous tears as they watched their five-year-olds march in a Chuck E. Cheese birthday parade. They’d both felt it, rising lumps in their throats and welling in their eyes, in embarrassing disproportion to the day. Their children were small and close and years away from leaving …

Hats

Hats have great importance. Young mothers put hats on their infants to protect them when they are in their strollers and out for a walk. They don’t know it, but when their babies are old enough to grab, those ruffled hats will be the first to go. Several months later, those same mothers will put …

Mistake and forgiveness

She leaned over to kiss him hello and, instead of smiling at her, an anguished look of pain overtook his face. She didn’t think. She kept with her plan to kiss him. She had been afraid. Afraid of the visit, afraid of kissing a face that was once so much more familiar to her. She …

Finding the smallest sign

For months, throughout the winter, the birdfeeder hung off the deck, full of seeds and bits of fruit, waiting for the birds to come. I was waiting too and with each day that passed without a single visitor, I became more and more discouraged. Depressed, actually. It made me feel like I knew nothing, and …