I spotted Queen Anne’s lace this week beside an old shed and stopped to take a picture. Years ago, I would have picked a bunch.

With Father’s Day approaching, I’ve been thinking about dads. They seem to be described as either present and wonderful or absent, with varying degrees of disappointment. My dad was one of the wonderful ones. When I was little, I had a best friend named Kathy who lived next door. Not next door, the way we think of it here in rural Maine. This was on Long Island, New York, where the houses lined a long street, separated by driveways. Backyards and the street were where we pla

This morning, I handed her another teddy bear graham cracker. It dances a wobbly performance in her sweet little fingers—then it’s popped into her mouth, crunched up by her back teeth, she’s just discovered. Later, I was listening to an interview with Jon Stewart and Graham Plattner, who is running for the Maine State Senate. Somewhere between the two, the graham cracker and the interview, my brain made one of those connections that don’t really matter, except that it does. W

My friend, who is more than a friend, is my chosen neighbor. My chosen family. A driveway and a small hill sit between us. An easy ninety-second walk. She was supposed to turn a large shed into an office for her counseling practice. That was the plan. We had it placed on my land during a time when plans still felt like something you could count on. But life moved faster than that. The pandemic shifted everything. She skipped right past the office and built herself a home. Jus

It is evening, the end of a long day moving my son into his new apartment. Returning the Uhaul truck, I turn right, up Cove Street. A woman is walking down the street. Her hair is light brown and long, to the bottom of her shoulder blades. A little frizzy in this 60-70 degree early June evening air, in Portland, Maine. There is a pleasant cool breeze that catches it. She pushes her grocery cart filled with what I imagine everything she owns, heading for Marginal Way, where th