Dearest Lily,   You’re about to turn nine years old – halfway to eighteen.   I recently read a blog post that changed how I’m experiencing your childhood. Most of our physical time together happens before you turn eighteen – something like 90%. That idea has made this birthday hit a little differently. There are only so many moments, and I’m suddenly very aware that we’re already well into them.   You’re still my beautiful, charming, and sometimes exasperating Winnie-the-Pooh

Dear Lily and Liam, Lately I've been thinking about some of the things I wish I'd known when I was younger – the insights that would have...

unburdened (for my brother, Bob) i hope my brother is in a place where he can finally rest, unburdened by everything he carried here. i hope he's got dogs, frisbees, music loud and funky enough to drown everything else out. i hope he's telling those same long stories, not worrying who's already heard them. i hope nothing followed him there – no sense he'd fallen short, no voice telling him so, no battles he had to fight alone. i hope he remembers only the good, the times the

Dear Liam, Six years ago, when your sister turned one, I wrote her a letter and posted it here on my blog. Two years later, for your...