My toddler longs to ride an elephant. It is a wonderful childish dream, but I don’t expect it will happen. When our young parent...

Dan comes home after meeting with the other partners of Cutts Brothers. It’s not an unheard-of thing, but they see each other at work...

I’m not in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I grew up spending Dad’s leave time driving from duty station to visit kin in Alabama; I expect...

Slippery roads lay beneath us and icy sleet comes at us as I cling to the dash or the door alternately. My husband is a...

It’s Valentine’s Day, 1984, in Searcy, Arkansas. I run to my dorm to switch books for afternoon classes, and pause to admire three...

“I need to confess something, but I’m afraid you won’t love me anymore when I do.” After I say this, my husband rolls his eyes and gives...

From our Subic Bay terrace my worldview is shaped by greens and blues. A small yard extends from the carport beneath our elevated house....

I lift my hand hesitantly and wave goodbye, tearful sobs finally ending. The early morning is cold and barely light. I slide close to my...

My husband and I are loaded up and rolling out of my ancestral home in Vernon, Alabama. We turn northward from my father’s rust-colored...

Tractors putt-putt. Trucks come and go. Conversations begin and fizzle with our energy levels. The soft sounds can be easily missed: the...

Groans and screams rip through the hallway. Anxious fear and dread grip me and threaten my confidence. “I don’t want to do that,” I...

An arctic storm works its icy way northward like the Grinch, winding snakelike under the Whoville Christmas tree. “This gross weather...