NY

Softly, even if you can barely hear it. Gently, even if you can barely feel it. Once, twice, three times — a word, a smile, anything that might reach through and become a message. You’re lovely. You’re wonderful. You did well. You’re going to be okay. A thumbs-up. A pat on the back. A high five. A […]

One step at a time, one piece at a time—  and before you know it, the picture will be complete.

I could never quite understand my wife’s reluctance to put away the dishes after washing them. She is, by nature, goal-oriented— quick to move through a task,less concerned with the order that follows. I knew this about her, and still, I didn’t understand. One day the task fell to me. I stood in front of the kitchen cabinet, faced it

The beautiful things beneath the heaven are like wildflowers met while climbing some hill in life. Blooming and fading and blooming again, changing their colors with the seasons. They hold out through the heat of summer, then yield themselves to wind and soil. They lie still in the frozen ground, as though dead, only to

I walked alone through the mountains for a long time, no one else around. At some point I stopped and looked back at the path behind me. It stretched away farther than I expected. I turned and kept going, and eventually the trail ran out at the top of a low hill. Just three or

Spring had been teasing us for days, one foot in and one foot out, before winter finally yanked us back by the ankle. I had bundled up properly before heading out, but the cold found its way in anyway, needling through every layer. Cold through next Thursday, they said. It was just past six in

This winter I passed through something I had never experienced in my life — minus thirty-five degrees. When the heavy snow and cold came in together, simply turning up the electric heater was enough to trip the breaker on the meter outside. So I learned to keep the temperature just below the threshold, walking that

I want to be a flower, just once.  Like the ones that endure the long freeze, break through the hardened ground, hold on through wind and rain, and at last, to bloom. Not for the sake of beauty, but to give off a fragrance.

Once I came to understand that death could come at any moment, each day began to feel like a gift. I found myself wanting  to linger in it a little longer, to receive it, to savor it. In the midst of a life lived fiercely, I hadn’t seen it. But when I began to sense

The age of AI has arrived. With it comes the promise of a better quality of life— and, at the same time, a growing unease: will it begin to replace us? How are we to survive in the age of artificial intelligence? Can humanity move beyond mere survival— can we still rise? In June of 2023, the U.S. military released the results