THE SMALL THINGS

Across the way from me, a highland ball is going on. I hear the music, and I think: I’ll take the dogs out for a look. I put my h...

Out of the wreckage, rising from the ashes, a new life emerges.  It is a great change. For years, my day revolved around going d...

The sun shines. People appear, from my past. Rather amazingly, they have business with HorseBack, so, five hundred miles away from t...

HorseBack ate my day. This is not a bad thing to chew up a day. Every Friday, I sit down to edit the week’s HorseBack photograph...

I couldn’t really write this week because I did not know what to say. You really can’t bore them with that, said the stern voices. So...

  Dear Stepfather's family at the field this morning. Little brown mare on the right, Darwin the Dog in the middle, me on the far lef...

As the long goodbye goes on and the day of the dear Stepfather’s departure draws near, I can put the good face on for about forty-five ...

Today was the last breakfast I would make for the Dear Stepfather. I was looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. His...

More last things. Today, it was hats. A top cupboard had been opened to reveal a hitherto unperceived collection. The hats res...

The gentleman who made my mother’s garden comes in, for the last time. There is a lot of last time, at the moment. I make my ste...

Another day, another breakfast with the dear Stepfather, another small pile on the table. The very last things are going from my mot...

Up and down and round the houses I go. Existential complications swarm at me like angry bees. But there are sudden, dazzling shafts ...

A tangle of intractable complications and sadnesses has me in its web. I think I am being tremendously stoical and putting on a good...

I write 2872 words. Bash, bash, bash go my fingers on the keyboard. I see to the horses and walk the dogs and make my stepfather his...

Darwin the Dog sees two likely fellows and bounds over to make friends. There have been new people coming and going outside my windo...

As all the drawers are emptied, I take home each day small files and folders of papers. My mother kept everything. There are cards i...