The hawk, my dad and me
July 28, 2016 would have been my dad’s 87th birthday. He has been gone for five years. He was my mentor and friend and of course I miss him like crazy. Grief is a...
Category: Family
Why the darkest Christmas was my brightest
Ketchum / Sun Valley Idaho (Image Source) It was Christmas 2009 andĀ as inĀ years previous, I traveled to the mountains to spend the holidays with my parents at their home in Ketchum, Idaho, Ā a small...
Time, the most precious gift of all
As Motherās Day approaches I am reminded how blessed I am to still have my vibrant, wise and beautiful mom with me. There are enough things in life that I may, or may not,...
Giving your heart to a dog
When you give your heart to a dog, you’re setting yourself up to the inevitable fact that you are likely toĀ outlive them. Life with any pet means a lot of love and companionship, but...
Bullying: The hurt that keeps on giving
IĀ was bullied in school. Back then, I donāt think we called it bullying. In fact, I think most people in the 1960s and 70s tended to look at itĀ as āKids will be kids.ā The...
A Father’s Day memory
(I wrote this three years ago today, on June 15, 2011. I reprint it here in honor of Fatherās Day and my dad Pat.) I opened his closet door and reached for the...
The children are watching…
What I saw: The mom had a vise-like grip on her little boy’s arm as she dragged him over to the bench in front of the store. His little legs scrambled as fast as...
Lessons from a dad on Father’s Day
In honor of Fatherās Day, Iād like to share some of the ādadismsā from my father, Pat Murphy, a journalist, writer, political commentator and one of the most interesting people Iāve ever known. Throughout...
The enduring power of the written word
The written word is really a miracle. Except for some style and grammatical changes over the generations, it remains constant and allows us to carry knowledge, thoughts and history through time. Speech is limited, and memories of the mind only last so long. But through the written word, we can preserve information and ideas, and share them for all time.
I write, thanks to those who believed in me along the way
Those of us who become writers likely have a zillion people to whom we can be thankful. Teachers, parents, bosses, all the editors who have rejected our submissions ā each of them have pushed...
Marshmallows and the meaning of life
The campfire crackles and spits sparks into the black night sky and I watch as the tiny orange dots float up, up, toward the silvery moon and stars, like little fireflies lilting and meandering...
Reverb 10: The power of friendship & family
“Friendship is a sheltering tree.” Ā ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge Iām participating in a month-long blogging challenge calledĀ Reverb10 during which I am posting a response to a writing prompt fromĀ 31 different authors. The goal of the...
