From spring into fall, we rode out in northwestern Nevada, in the high, cold, sagebrush desert, the open range, with very few dirt roads and even fewer barbed wire fences. We rode our horses 30 – 40 rough miles every…

Margaret dreamt of dust. She’d wake in her comfy bed, with its soft puffy blanket, but the soft puffy blanket would emit a plume of dust when she lifted it. This was one dream. In another she’d choose a pair…

Meet me there, at the road where there are two diners across the street from each other. Where the fields behind them lie open to the sky, begging for rain. On one side, heavy clouds hang low and make a…

It's surprising the kinds of things people will travel to get for free or very cheap. When I posted some used binders to give away on Buy-Nothing, the recipient traveled through ten miles of urban area, including a bridge with…

My father revealed his mixed feelings about my graduating college and going away by taking me out to our favorite Italian restaurant and asking about my plans. I told him about my three job offers, and that I was the…

Shiela’s fresh realization this morning makes her mouth drop open:gravity takes us to our grave. Hmmmm…..she notices how the first four letters of both words are “g-r-a-“ and “v”…..and then she remembers that “gravy” starts with the same letters, and…

Are those words meant to be clever together? A “simple” gravity? Are there complex gravities? “Grave” means serious, and “gravity” can mean seriousness, or an inclination. Newton’s apple. Your attraction to him. A “simple gravity?” You must be kidding. I’m…

Rich people are just like us, as many learned after hearing a recent interview with billionaire heiress, Lynsi Snyder. A third generation recipient of the family business In-N-Out, the Los Angeles California resident echoed the economic concerns of many in…

I was raised in Massachusetts, but as a young woman, much to my parents' consternation, I moved to a ranching area in rural northwestern Nevada, where there were multiple thousands more cattle than people. I had never ridden a horse…

Celia knew she needed sleep, but sleep was the one thing that eluded her night after night after night. Celia simply did not sleep much anymore, and her ragged depression gave witness to that fact: when Celia lost sleep, she…

Does it snow in Brooklyn? Yesterday a friend told me she was thinking about moving to Brooklyn. “Back to Brooklyn,” was the way she put it; her mother, aging, needs her. “Besides, it’s all very different,” she said. “It’s been…

At heart, Ernst was a painter. He expressed his happy feelings publicly, loudly but his sadness he spoke with color. Ernst’s paintings were bold and bright. It was as if he was not German but a citizen of a tropical…