• So Others Look Good

    So Others Look Good

    Sometimes the thing we least want to do is the thing we most need to do. A frozen Boston morning, a marathon trainer’s hard truth, and what it takes to go out the door anyway.

  • Praying the Rotary

    Praying the Rotary

    Italy keeps teaching me to slow down, stay at the table, and trust that somehow the road will open.

  • I Missed You From Before

    I Missed You From Before

    My youngest was three when he told me he missed me from before, meaning the years I spent at sea. Eight years later, the Blue Grotto, swim practice, and fifty minutes of Avengers lore are helping give some of that time back.

  • Where Did Everybody Go?

    Where Did Everybody Go?

    Every August, Italy hangs a sign in the window and stops. On Ferragosto, fallow fields, screen sabbath, and a cypress forest full of families doing nothing in a highly organized fashion.

  • The Watch

    The Watch

    A week aboard a 1930 research vessel with my fifteen-year-old son, two old salts, seven species of dolphin and whale, and a rite of passage nobody announced. I was there to witness the quiet work of growing up.

  • Many Happy Returns

    Many Happy Returns

    A birthday is an anniversary, and an anniversary marks the staying. Reflections on marriage, calling, and country from a fault line in Sicily.

  • Walk On The Wild Side

    Walk On The Wild Side

    A burial plot in old New England forest, a long-overdue morning at Walden Pond, and the wilderness I did not realize I had been missing until I was surrounded by it again.

  • Shake Awake

    Shake Awake

    A 4.4 earthquake, eight weeks of summer break, and the daily work of standing ground when the earth refuses to stay still.

  • Not On My Bingo Card

    Not On My Bingo Card

    A family trip to Amsterdam, four homemade bingo cards, and grace found outside the itinerary.

  • Kin In Spirit

    Kin In Spirit

    A papal visit in Naples, a phone-free teenager, a crowd full of joy, and a bus stop blessing I did not see coming.