Little Big Moments

The talk of the town is that the students are back! As much as I enjoy the slower pace of summer, the students bring energy and life. They fill the sidewalks and the streets. They walk, bike, and ride scooters. I catch flashes of their smiles and hear snatches of their conversations.

My family and I shared a potluck dinner at church with my friend from Afghanistan. Attempting to engage his two young children, I asked, “What’s your favorite animal?”

Dogs are one of the many gifts I love about Weaver Street Market in Carrboro. Canine friends...

Last Friday, Ginny and I took our kids to Raleigh and the Sunflower Field at Dorothea Dix Park. Although we had planned to arrive as the fiery ball set in the sky, it was still hot and humid.

The yard sign stuck in a neighbor’s mulch prohibits “tres-pooping” and is aimed at the trespassing dogs (not Spanish-speaking ones). However, the most egregious scatological sinners are the Canada geese (Branta canadensis).

Andrea Gibson died on July 14. I admired their poetry, most especially their bravery to accept their mortality after learning of their terminal ovarian cancer.

“I had ice cream for breakfast!” The girl beamed at me. I was volunteering in Saxapahaw with a...

This year, we took our dog to the beach, where she avoided the waves and the seagulls avoided her; however, she did roll in fish guts when I wasn’t paying attention.

Doodle — funny word, right? “To scrawl aimlessly,” according to Etymology Online, and doodle is also linked lexically with “dawdle,” that is, “to fritter away time.”

We escaped the heat and humidity of the Triangle for a few days in the mountains. The fallen trees across the creek are reminders of the fury of Hurricane Helene, but businesses in the little town are open. After supper, we walked to buy ice cream. Sugared-up and excited, our kids chased fireflies in a grassy field beyond a parking lot.