My patient has dementia, and her husband of 50 years is doing everything he can to care for her. He washes her soiled linens, provides her meals, and arranges all the...

The most beautiful plant in our home is in our bathroom. It is a November cactus, and it amazes with its beautiful flowering, even in conditions where other flowers fight for...

In the 1970s, one winter afternoon after classes, I hurried to Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery to study a painting entitled Appearance of Christ to the People by Alexander Ivanov. My plan...

When I was a child, the tropical outdoors of Nigeria where I lived beckoned to me. In grass, rocks, dirt, mud, cement patio — whatever the setting — I found a...

Depression has afflicted my life in different ways over the years. One constant was fear — the persistent catch in my chest that made it difficult to ever be completely at...

I was part of a construction crew that worked on new housing developments. Our job was to connect houses to the water system. The work was not always easy, but it...

On the first day of each community-college art class I taught, I would ask the students to write a brief answer to the question, “Who are you?” Later, I was eager...

Throughout my career as a journalist I have held important jobs with a good salary to match. However, in 2016 I was dismissed from one of the most prominent television stations...

When I think about being a light to the world, I remember one of my favorite childhood toys: a glow-in-the-dark, synthetic-rubber super ball. If I carried it in my pocket all...

When my husband and our two-and-a-half-year-old great-grandson Carson returned from a walk one morning, Carson handed me what was left of a rose. Apparently, it was already wilted when he found...