Exploring the Third Season of Life

Notes from Vanaprastha

Reflections on Faith, Nature, and Writing

Recent Posts

Marriage in the Middle

Marriage in the Middle

We sat in lawn chairs around an open fire, glad for the warmth against the crisp evening and the physical distancing we’ve experienced in the past several months. Our pastor and his wife had invited the elders and their wives for a backyard gathering and dessert....

Comedy’s Formula

Comedy’s Formula

I got my sense of humor from my mother. I’d tell her my tragedies. She’d make me laugh. She said comedy is tragedy plus time. – Carol Burnett “I think we’re going the wrong way,” my son David said. We had decided to take the longer, more leisurely trail back to the...

Building a platform

Building a platform

A gentle breeze rustled the pages of my legal pad while I took notes on the bistro table—outside so as not to disturb Keith. On the other end of the phone was author and writing coach Lisa Romeo. After attending her reading at HippoCamp 2018, I’d purchased her...

Risk of Reaction

Risk of Reaction

A heavy blanket of fatigue wrapped around me as I read into the evening. We’d spent the afternoon running errands, so my weariness did not surprise. But then came the head and body aches.  At 8 o’clock, Keith asked, “Do you want to watch a movie or something...

The opposite of certainty

The opposite of certainty

While the remnants of hurricane Laura soaked the forest on Saturday morning, I sipped green tea and finished Janine Urbaniak Reid’s memoir The Opposite of Certainty. Reading about her brush with alcohol abuse in her teens and early twenties, I thought about the...