“We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there...

“What are anger issues, Daddy?” My ever-perceptive 6-yr-old asked me this on the ride to school a few days ago, having somehow heard the...

Late one morning, long before children, I sat on the edge of a New Orleans hotel bed and exhaled audibly. Inside my skull, a spicy Jazz...

“I’m bored,” my seven-year-old barked at me, as I flipped eggs one sunny Saturday. I stomped in from the kitchen and pointed the spatula....

My cheeky 6yr-old made goofy expressions in the mirror, raising his eyebrows and, finally, grimacing slightly. “Daddy, you know what I...

At a religious service last month, invited to pray silently, I shut my eyes, inhaled deeply and began my routine gamut of wishes:...

“Daddy, I’m starving,” my 7-yo lamented, being, to use his own word, “marshmallow-dramatic.” “What’d you eat for lunch?” I asked,...

“Even monkeys fall from trees.”  Chris Bradford, The Ring of Earth. No way, I thought to myself the moment my brush, wet with polymer...

“You suck!” my 5-yo barked into my face, looking me dead in the eye. The words hit me like broken glass. My neck and stomach clenched,...

My eldest stepped out of the car yesterday in a brand new lemon-yellow school shirt and khaki shorts, holding a bag full of pencils,...

The little girl kept doing it … marching straight to the front, skipping everyone in line and going down the water slide. After the 3rd...

“Did you ever get divorced?” 6-yo Kai recently asked my wife, as we three sat on the couch munching white-cheddar popcorn. “No, that was...

Dusk Falls on Dan’s Delicious, acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 48″, 2002, Stuart Sheldon Helplessness happens. We are born completely powerless...

“Daddy, do babies have tiny nipples?” my 4-yo, Bodhi, asked me, lounging in a fresh pair of PJs. “Yes,” I answered from the couch,...

Do your parents construct your soul at that climactic moment? Or does it pre-exist, only to be reactivated in that surge of...

Demure Becomes You, acrylic, antique cookbook, cardboard on canvas, 60″x60″, 2007, Stuart Sheldon We all have ex lovers. Encountering...

photo by Jenny Kaczorowski from WANA Commons We just finished bottle number two. Took us nearly ten years. Each drop another meal,...

This is My Mom!! My mother was a 1950’s beauty queen. I have a photo to prove it. She kneels atop a real live tortoise. Beneath a palm....

“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.” Bern Williams Share this: Tweet Share on Tumblr Email #parenting...

Stuart Sheldon, We Can’t Be Too Bold, acrylic and typing on Chinese funeral paper on panel, 12″x12″, 2003 “Are u happy, Daddy?” my...