She's the dog you can't resist

/
She's the dog you can't resist

She does terrible things. She terrorizes the cats. She eats their food, drinks their water, plunks her hulking body in the front hall, and pretends to sleep there until, in need of litter or the great outdoors, they come tiptoeing by. Then she attacks, not to kill, just to remind the terrified creatures who is boss around here, who is 'man's best friend.'

She barks at ordinary sounds. An acorn falls on the front walk, somebody drops shampoo in the shower, her tail thumps against the door as she careens into a room, and you would think Cruella DeVil was standing before her. She goes absolutely wild. Her bark is fierce and surprises even her, and fills her with cocky, canine pride. She loves the sound she makes.

Read More

Roots and Wings

/
Roots and Wings

Dottie Scott took the framed print off her wall and gave it to me the summer before my first child was going off to college. "There are two things you give your children. One is roots, the other is wings.” I hung this saying in my office, above my desk, so I've been forced to think about it regularly over the years. Roots have never been a problem for me. They have been easy to give. Wings, on the other hand, continue to elude…

Read More

Crowning the Virgin Mary

/

It never lost its magic the way most things do. You get older, you look up close and you see the strings on puppets, cards up the trickster's sleeve. Childhood pleasures seldom stand up to adult scrutiny. Except every once in a while, the magic lingers, and a long-awaited moment doesn't disappoint.

When my friend Beth was in fifth grade, she prayed for the one thing she wanted more than anything in the world to crown the…

Read More

Spring shadows seem longer

/
Spring shadows seem longer

I find myself lingering over the travel section in newspapers these days, dreaming of all the places I'd like to visit, pausing at photographs of breaking waves and sandy beaches and gardens in bloom, stopping to reread sentences like, "In parks and plazas, Boston wrings pleasure from longer, warmer days." "Wrings pleasure." It's a nice image, an interesting juxtaposition of words.

Read More

Amy cartwheeled through life

/
Amy cartwheeled through life

Another year passes, another begins. Amy died 10 years ago today, in her mother's arms, struggling to stay alive even at the end. Every breath meant another few minutes of everything she knew, everyone she loved.' I want you to come with me,' she whispered to her mother as death approached. 'I wish I could, sweetie,' her mother said holding her, holding to her. 'But this is something you have to do …

Read More

Bruin’s Fan Skates on Thin Ice

/

Normally, he is like Henry Higgins an 'ordinary man, even-tempered and good-natured whom you'd never hear complain, who has the milk of human kindness by the quart in every vein.' But let the Bruins in his life . . .

And my husband becomes a wild man. Here's a guy who is generally unflappable. We miss a plane to Lincoln, Neb., because someone read the ticket wrong and he actually says, 'Hey. What's the big deal. We'll fly to Omaha and rent a car. It'll be an adventure…

Read More

Police Death Pay Divides a Family

/
Police Death Pay Divides a Family

I never kissed my father goodbye without thinking that it might be the last time I would see him. I always knew his job was dangerous. He once shot out the tires of a robber speeding away. It was written up in a newspaper. My mother saved the clipping, and I used to look at it and wonder what would have happened if the robber had shot back? What would life have been like if my father had been killed…

Read More