Two Pine Trees

I am completely supportive of my friends working out how to make some money and bring their best self to this transitive thing we call life. But if I bought/contributed to everything I'm asked to...well, we would be broke in a New York minute. Recently, in one day I was included in three events - none of which I was interested in "attending".  I'm not an attender anyway - virtual or transported. I am much more comfortable with a great book,  or even a mediocre one, or a non reality tv show, a little bit of knitting, maybe even a whiskey. Ah, but I used to go to these things. They seemed like the socially acceptable way to place yourself into a group. You could meet people, and bond over such first world necessities as who needed a new gold-plated vegetable chopper or a monogrammed carryall bag or a crème promising to lift and move everything except your teenagers. But now all of these 'bring your checkbook' events are VIRTUAL. OK, I don't have to lea...

The doctor’s appointment took far less time than we had anticipated and the day was something out of a photograph. The sky was vibrant with wispy clouds and we had free, unplanned time. What do you do with unexpected free time? When we were little, riding in the back seat of our Daddy’s car, my Mama would chime, “We have some time! Let’s go for a drive.”   There was no direction, no planning, no agendas, just driving with the windows slightly down, roving, checking the countryside, stopping at an old corner store, it was rare, it was marvelous, it was a type of together-freedom. So we drove that day, my sister and I, up the road, away from home, away from everyone, just like the times when we were young, heading without direction into the day, into adventure, into come what may. We drove out of Raleigh, heading into Knightdale. These days, it’s hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. We drove along old Hiway 64 East. We headed over the muddy Neuse River and talked a...