As the Christmas season fast approaches, I hope you're not like me. I start thinking of next Christmas shortly after the current one, even before all the torn wrapping paper has been cleaned up. And I tell myself that I'll not wait until the last minute to finish my shopping the next time. I even begin making occasional purchases of those gifts (and hoping I remember where I put them when Christmas does arrive). Invariably, however, I wait too long to get some gifts and end u

It isn't often that all three of the Peterson siblings get together. More often, two of us will travel to see each other, but it's rare when all three can arrange to meet. After all, we're each in a different state, miles and hours of travel separating us. But last week we were able to get together for the first time in--well, I can't recall the last time we were together. Probably for a funeral somewhere. Knowing that we should get together since all of us are aging and we n

Birthdays in our family when I was a kid growing up were no big deal. Mother might bake us a cake. Nannie and Paw Summers, my maternal grandparents, always sent us a card with a dollar bill slipped into it. (On their limited Social Security checks, that was a great sacrifice because they did the same for each of their grandkids, and that added up.) But that was all we came to expect. There were no gifts, no parties. Well, we were promised two parties--one when we were six yea

Sometimes short, pithy quotations make one pause and think. That often leads to self-examination. And self-examination sometimes leads to...