In many ways, the sound of silence can be most rewarding whilst at the dinner table. A once chatty group, a veritable snowball of conversation, growing in size (and volume) as each new topic or joke or story is added to the mix, is now silenced by a strange and overwhelming force. Dinner has been served and we’ve all shut up. I know tonight’s offering is especially hitting the spot as myself and my dinner mates have failed to utter a single word since the plates hit the table. What a welcome relief this silence truly is. It’s been a hard week. We’ve all come to ...

Nature can be harbinger of many things. Sometimes these things are wild and destructive, summoning forces that can only be categorized as an Act of fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorite-deity, awing us with its power and energy. When the leaves rustle in the wind, showing their underbellies and their edges curling towards the sky, you can all but guarantee yourself that it’s’a’gonna rain soon. Other times it’s a welcomed cool morning in July or that random heat wave in January when you first realize that you can no longer fit into your shorts from last summer (thank ...