As a kid, the excitement of a new year approaching meant making plans. The evening always involved taking over the living room with four...

Perhaps you once enjoyed creating art and craft work. While the memory has almost faded, chances are that in a dusty corner of your...

A friend, just days after a knee replacement, wistfully mentioned craving a slice of custard pie. How hard could it be? I promised to...

Mom's mother was my Granny Rachel. She wore a dark, full-length dress with a shawl and kept her pocketbook close at hand. To my young...

Fall arrived after a long, hot summer. The day was gloriously cool, and I desired soup. Not mushy canned soup but a vat of lovingly...

We saw them hanging in our mothers’ closets. Did they exude a faint, exotic hint of cologne when we lifted dust covers? Did memories of...

I cannot imagine a more thrilling moment than breaking the seal on a new tube of lipstick. Until you apply it, everything rides on hope...

For many, the new year always officially begins when school re-opens in the fall. As the easy and carefree days of summer dwindle, a...

Two body parts that resist change as years accumulate deserve recognition. Let’s hear it for wrists. I collect bracelets, file them...

A shop instructor I had at college came to mind recently. “A tool is an extension of your hand” he said “and remember, it’s is a poor...

This week, I watched part of the Platinum Jubilee marking 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II ’s reign. On June 2, 1953, I watched her...

When life gets oppressive and the TV news depressing, I’ve found a perfect escape. No matter the weather, this place is pastoral. Birds...

I can’t imagine life without color. I live where winter is long and the world appears as if painted with a neutral, uninspired palette....

To share your talents is advice that makes a lot of sense. Whatever skills you have can help enrich other’s lives. Recently, eight of my...

As a teenager, Easter was a metamorphosis. Almost overnight, winter had passed and the sapling would sprout tender leaves. I knew that...

My mom Olive asked her older sister Hazel this question. I was little and wondered what the heck mom needed to pray about? Was something...

While spring fever isn't an actual medical malady, it is real enough to anyone who has ever been stricken with it. It comes as winter...

Our pets are family members. If only they could talk. Here is what a sweet dog Abby had to say to her mom, Melissa Miinte Stewart. Hi...

Creativity is not merely an attribute of philosophers, scientists, or bearded sages. According to writer Maya Angelo, “We are all born...

Winter is a time to hunker down and seek comfort. Where I live three months of glacial temperatures (December, January, and February)...