This is one of those stories that won’t come easy. It’s genuinely one where I’ll have to “sit down and open a vein.” It’s very personal, and maybe I should not speak publicly about it, but I need to, and since I’ve gotten older, I have no desire to hide…

It’s the newest style on the beach, but bodies still matter. — Yeah, that’s not me in the swimsuit. I wish. I just put that there to make you look. It’s clickbait. I’m not ashamed, you can just go ahead and enjoy the pretty picture, though, and then read my piece. …

If one of our purposes was to keep addicts alive. — Withholding pain pills was a terrible idea that has seriously backfired, but nobody in medicine or government wants to admit it. The government leaning on doctors to not prescribe Opioids unless a person is dying, and maybe not even then, is hurting our national health care. While many human rights…

Thoughts about our grandson. For reasons I don’t want to go into here, my husband and I found out early in 2013 that we would have to take over the raising of our oldest grandson. There was no choice except to let him go into foster care. …

The call cops hate most. — The call was a domestic disturbance. The wife had called 911 and said her husband was drunk, had hit her, and was tearing up the house. I’d been there before, and I was familiar with the couple. Especially the husband, Ryan (not his real name), who was no stranger to…

And there’s no such thing as a chemical brain imbalance? — Now they tell me. I just read in a story by Tessa Schlesinger, followed by a story in the very reliable Psychology Today, that there’s no such a thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain and antidepressants don’t work. Further research confirmed it is true. …

I made a peach cobbler today. I know. It’s hot. I shouldn’t be heating up the kitchen by using the oven. But after a while, I have to bake. I’ve been thinking about peach cobbler for a week now, and today, I just had to make one. …

The park that sparkled glorious in spring Now lies dry — wrinkled, weathered and worn A has-been though summer’s not half gone Heat rises from the streets in mirages Hot waves tease and look like rising water Midsummer grass crunches underfoot Walking, one remembers the soft green mat A cat…

Would it kill him to let her feel good? Is it that he must have the upper hand? Or at least always feel as if he does? It wouldn’t take much A compliment, maybe or Just a casual caress A pat on the back could even work Or an occasional…