I liken this series of articles to the school year and how at the end of the year it is nice to have a great big concert to show off the progress that has been made. With no further ado.
You can be bald and the tub drain will still plug up with hair.
I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted. Those days are gone. I am still pretty healthy, but I know the things I eat now are going to start making me pay. So I watch what …

Waiting. Just the mention of the word conjures up feelings of frustration.
Picture this: It’s Saturday and the kids have tired you out with a soccer game in the morning and in the afternoon shopping for supplies for a school project. But it’s evening now and they are off at a friend’s for the night and it’s just you and your wife. You pull the car up to your favorite restaurant and step out of the car. You stretch, for it has been a long day, and take a deep …

We have all heard of lottery winners who went from rags to riches in an instant. Most of us have imagined it happening to us. But most of us have also heard stories of those same lottery winners and how years later they are even worse off than they were before they won the lottery. Test me on this: do a Google search for “what happens to lottery winners.” The results are staggering and ultimately depressing.
It is not just lottery winners that have trouble handling their new found fortunes. Rock …

I always used to think that New Year’s resolutions were simple things like trying not to swear, or bringing home flowers to the wife more often, or eating cake only once a week instead of twice a week. These are all good things in and of themselves. But how close are they to our hearts? Do we really care if we fail to keep them?
As I grow older I see what New Year’s can be. It can be the chance to start again, to reassess my hopes and goals and …

Do not keep eating things that do not sit well with you. Makes sense, but I still eat foods that tear me up in some way.
No matter how good a deal you think you are getting, the car dealership always wins. Always.
Sometimes I think God made sleep so I could have a lot of fresh starts in the morning.
Procrastinators get less sleep and less peace.
I think the government loves pay raises more than we do.
Some people are like kryptonite. I always give in to them, no matter how many times …

Sometimes a different perspective does wonders.
I run everyday, in part because I love to run. But I also run because that is when the stories start flowing in my mind. Great dialogues and interesting plot twists, characters that jump off the page and into my heart. I forget most by the time I get a pen in my hand; that seems to be the nature of my creative process. Sometimes though, I hit upon something that will not leave me alone. And that is why I run. For moments like …

The first fortune (from a fortune cookie) I ever saved was during college. It is the first one I remember, not because it was the first fortune cookie I ate, but because it was about that time that I began to doubt my future. I doubted what I was going to do with my future and whether that future would be as bright and happy as I imagined it as a boy.
I was an aspiring writer at the time (I suppose I still am) caught somewhere between believing I …

I work in an environment that can be stressful. The phone is always ringing. A steady stream of people stop by my desk. They all have a problem or want something. I am not complaining. I have a good job, a good situation. However, some days the constant press of people and furious activity just seems to drain my spirit.
As lunch approaches, I know that I have to get away for an hour. I always call my sister, who works just across town. If it is near noon, she already …

We all have Bobs in our life. Mine is seventy-seven. He looks frail at first glance, his hair white and wispy like clouds on a blue sky day. He wears glasses and totters about like he is one misstep from needing a hip replacement, an old Irish golfing cap made of wool perched on his head no matter the weather. He likes to stick things under that hat so he won’t lose them. His lottery ticket, his glasses, the business card with the date of his next doctor’s appointment.
Even though …

By Eleanor Knowles
Most people love food, whether they admit it or not. And lots of us don’t mind a drop of nostalgia now and then too. Combine the two and you’ve got a recipe for one of those “I remember my Granny making the most delicious apple pie from the fruit tree in the garden” kind of moment. In fact there are loads of old wives’ tales about food, and we’re not the only ones interested in them.
Doctors and various other experts are all digging up old sayings and brandishing …