Difficulty is a miracle in its first stage. —Amish proverb
DEDICATION In memory of my dad, Nick Klist —with deepest gratitude for all the love, the courage, the laughter, and the wisdom of a lifetime. He lives in the hearts of those who loved him.
Because it would be worse than never having them in the first place. I just enjoy the time I’m given with the animals.
BACKYARD GARDEN SALAD In wartime, patriotic families cultivated Victory Gardens to promote self-sufficiency and help the war effort. 4 cups mixed greens 1/4 cup fresh sprigs of dill 1/4 cup fresh flat...
As a volunteer for the Military History Center, he visited Arlington whenever he was in town, recovering items that had been left on headstones. With his fellow volunteers, he helped catalog the items...
As a child, she’d been a great reader, finding the ultimate escape within the pages of a story. She learned that opening a book was like opening a set of double doors—the next step would take her insi...
A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. —Henry David Thoreau Walden, The Ponds
Walking again. But being inconspicuous on
Life was beautiful, that love and adventure were possible even when times were hard or frightening.
Her questions shooting at him like a barrage of machine-gun fire. He thought he did okay, because he was prepared. He had spent weeks reading and researching and studying, all the while waiting for th...
Her home; it just happened to be where she lived. This was the House that Jack Built, she thought, hearing the singsong rhythm of the old children’s story in her head. And this was the wife who lived...
Great guy. Wait till you get to know him. I didn’t wait, Sophie thought. I fell right into bed with him. It would never work. I still don’t want kids, Daphne said. I never will. I’m the oldest of five...
A broken heart doesn’t care how the love got lost.
You mustn’t touch me. Very slowly, he lowered his hand. You need to be touched, Caitlin MacBride. You need it very badly. She girded herself with denial. Even if it were so, I would not need it from a...
You can either kill me. Or marry me, he said. His suggestion slammed into her with the force of a blow. She reeled back. No! He bent and began fishing nails out of the bucket. No to what? To both choi...
Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation! —Jane Austen (1798)
We all have our own unique gifts. It is incumbent upon the larger society to discover them.
The handblown glass pickle ornaments from Lauscha in Germany can date back as far as 1847, and are treasured by families everywhere. The first child to spy the ornament on the tree Christmas morning g...
The empty prairie, crisscrossed by a grid of startlingly straight roads, rolled out like a vast wasteland in front of the hood ornament of the GTO. It was remarkable, Sarah thought, how quickly the su...
The dispatcher said they’re ten minutes out. That was almost ten minutes ago, so— Okay, I need to concentrate here. Faith knew it was better to perform a few unnecessary chest compressions for someone...