Author Archives: John Swinburn

Over time, wooden furniture takes on some of the characteristics of the people with whom it shares space. It remembers dinner parties when beverage coasters were not used. Dogs, oblivious to their paws’ power to scratch, leave their marks on … Continue reading →

It’s not the mistakes you make that could be your undoing. It’s the ones you didn’t risk making that will haunt you. It’s the chances you didn’t take, the kisses you didn’t plant, the words you didn’t say. Whether they are words … Continue reading →

The cavernous room is brimming with garish decorations, clearly the work of a drunken wedding planner. An artificial aisle littered with neon-pink rose petals and orange and silver glitter defines the pathway between the rear door and the stage. Dozens of mirror balls hang … Continue reading →

Try not to remove every speck of dust from every flat surface. The absence of flaws suggests artificiality in furniture, floors, and people.

I have never seen a bird simply fall of out the sky, smashing into the ground. This is, of course, a good thing. I would not want that experience. What I have seen, yesterday in fact, are birds behaving as … Continue reading →

Two men passed one another on the street, each giving a nod of acknowledgement to the other.  The taller of the two men, a gambler known as “Sticky” McKie, wheeled around two footsteps later, pulled a forty-five caliber revolver from his … Continue reading →

Every morning, I get up and I write, just a little. I don’t know precisely who I’m writing to. It’s mostly to myself, but not entirely. I’m trying to say something to someone, but I am not sure who, nor what … Continue reading →

If you had known as much yesterday as you know now, so many of the solutions looking for problems would have sorted themselves out with no input from you.

It was thirty-five years ago today that we—my wife and I—got married. A small group, consisting of a few members of my family and some friends, gathered in her condo, where a Unitarian minister performed a secular marriage ceremony. The … Continue reading →

I gathered the broken branches and took them to the edge of the cliff. They looked to me like frightened children, separated from their parents. I could not find it in myself to throw them over, so I left them … Continue reading →

A wasp trap was the only thing remaining on my shopping list a few days ago, but I couldn’t find it, so I left it on the list, but threw the list away. Unfortunately, the list was on my smart phone. … Continue reading →

A line of squalls a thousand miles long approached the coast, the brutal winds anxious to create the chaos we’d hoped so desperately to avoid. It was ghastly to learn that weather can think, that it possesses human emotions.  And … Continue reading →

If you believe nothing else, believe this: you always have the choice of being your own best friend or your own worst enemy.