We eat dinner outside on our patio for the first time. The air is cool, the evening sun warm. It is still too early for bugs. The Creek flows along the far edge of our yard – rushing, now, sw…

Brother, do you believe in an afterlife?Where our souls will both collidein some great Elysiumway up in the sky? It is hard to sit with Ash Wednesday. This day has always been a difficult one for me. I didn't know what it was, when I first saw it being observed, sitting in the chapel of my college, watching students leave with the sign of the cross in ash on their foreheads.

ALT: a man with blonde hair and a beard is laying down

Alt: My queen Dr. Gillian Foster, from the show Lie to Me

YouTube video by Röac the Grey Haven Raven (Katie)

December 9th, 2024. After months of looking, visiting, offering, being rejected, looking some more, offering again, being accepted, waiting, waiting, waiting, my husband and I sat down to a, strangely, disappointingly brief meeting with a lawyer and a banker to sign paperwork making us homeowners. For the first time in my life, I have a home that is mine - not my parents', not my landlord's - just mine.

YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News

Readers of this blog will likely be aware of what an integral part of my life, and especially my childhood and college years, the works of J. R. R. Tolkien are. It’s been a while since I&#821…