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It's an old but useful trick. Well, not a trick, really, as in a deception to fool someone. It's more like magic. Like a tool. A tool that, for me right now, is in the shape of a crutch. I don't mind grabbing for the crutch, though, because it's like a ladder. A...

"Man searches for his own fulfillment in life in many ways, but where is lasting fulfillment to be found? A career comes to an end; attaining to a great position of wealth or power fails to satisfy one's deepest longings. Surely there must be something more to life!...

For a week now I've been mulling over something that seemed so crystal clear at the outset but has gotten more and more elusive. I wrote it once and thought I needed to preface it with another story I'd been reading, but that made it too long. Trying to split it into...

Once a year I get a new cat. Well, not a brand new cat, but a cat that looks and feels new. Seems new, too. How's that? Well, it's because every spring I take him to Kelly's Pet Grooming to get shaved. Yes. Shaved. Like a dog...except he's a cat. I learn about this...

I hear a meow in my bedroom doorway. Smaller than her Siamese sister, Cuddles has escaped the kitchen gate again while my husband sips his first cup of coffee. At 6:45 a.m., amber eyes and whiskers plead a place on my bed. "Come on up." In one leap, Cuddles commences...

Eight-year old Laurel had a job to do. "Please keep Mandy in your room until our meeting ends," Laurel's mother said. "Okay, Mom." She bounced up the stairs, her dog following. Maureen, then President of Detroit Working Writers, welcomed fellow board members to her...

The glorious photo of the majestic eagle that Mary Grosskopf captured near her Mussey Twp. home reminded me of our conversation around the beautiful table during Easter brunch on Sunday. As usual, it soon turned to travel and adventure. My cousin Robert and his wife...

I calmly eat my noodles in the morning rush at the restaurant, and I can feel eyes crawling all over me. A nation in the broadest sense of the term, according to the dictionary, is "a people having a common origin, tradition, and language and capable of forming or...

Every Eastertime of my childhood, my mother walked into Sew-N-Save. She selected three patterns, and then slipped her fingers between the raw edges of fabric to find the perfect material for three dresses. Finally, she searched for notions and pushed her cart to the...

As with all the holidays—especially the religious ones—Easter was a big deal in the Minolli household. Like the others, including the secular, food took center stage—still does—except the location of the stage has changed. Throughout Lent, like other practicing...