Love...it seems of all the over used, and mis-used, words in the English language, this one tops the list.

People love their car, their Kindle, their flat screen. They love the latest movie, restaurant, vacation spot.

I even know people who love the sound of their own voice! But… Read full post »

If you give me a chance to live, love and play I promise to pay you back in a thousand different ways! I'll lick your face and I'll give you my paw and I promise not to go wee-wee on your nice clean floor. I'm really a nice boy but I'm scared here and confused and I… Read full post »

As I prepare to turn fifty in just a week's time, I am most struck by how dramatically my views on life have changed, and while I could easily go on at length in vain attempt to explain, I believe a younger woman put it best last evening....

I was dining… Read full post »

Have you ever been accused of something not your fault? Sucks, right? Rocky thinks so. He's a four year old hound mix rescued from life as a bait dog and put into a home where he was mistreated and forced to fight back. Now he's back at the shelter convicted of a crime he didn't… Read full post »

Imagine being all alone in this world with no one to comfort you when you are scared and cold...

Imagine your days left to the streets to roam with sticks and stones hurled at your bones…

Imagine having no one to love and no home of your own…

Imagine if… Read full post »

            I was born on the streets of New York, literally, and was one of nine, coming sixth in the line-up.  I never knew my father, none of us did.  He didn’t stick around and to be honest I can’t be sure we each h… Read full post »

I’m pretty ordered when it comes to most things. I like the remote next to the television, I like the dishes put away after washing not left in the drainboard for days on end, and I like the lights to be out and the covers not look like two sumo wrestlers… Read full post »

I’m usually not a big fan of change, probably why I’ve lived in the same apartment for eleven years, but the change of life as my grandmother called it is one I’m pretty much looking forward to. Those pesky hot flashes will be a warm welcome against the New York cold/… Read full post »

Barbaric though it might seem the fact of the matter is that cats hunt. Whether bringing down a zebra on the open plains of the African wild or a sparrow among the wildflowers of the grassy backyard it is instinctive for cats to hunt. Be it for survival or sport or… Read full post »

My fourteen year old niece lost out on getting a medal for swimming despite her relentless efforts and was absolutely crushed. My brother, in effort to console her as she watched all her friends get the coveted award, assured her she was indeed a champion to him to wit she replied… Read full post »

He was wrongly convicted and jailed and though he was greatly afraid for his fate he never lost heart.

Many say that I rescued him in how I fought for his release but truthfully it was he who rescued me. He opened my eyes to a world he still recognized… Read full post »

I was raised to believe that life was what you made of it. If you didn’t like something about your life, you didn’t whine about it, you got up off your ass and did something to change it.  This philosophy applied, of course, to everything except marriage. Once you’d made that/… Read full post »

I am a long time devotee of film noir, the classic black and white films of eras long gone. The most significant and most memorable lines of all movie time have come from those dark classics.  “Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again/” “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s… Read full post »

I drink. There I’ve said it. The secret is out.  Not that I’m about to get up at the podium and take the pledge at some Bill W. support group meeting but for all who wonder how I get through weeks of hisses, growls and various acts of defiance by any/… Read full post »

I live in a second story walk up, entirely landlocked with the nearest highest peak being the newly constructed monstrous mansion of a house on the corner and the closest body of water being the harbor beach five miles away, yet I can state with all honesty that I live within… Read full post »

A funny thing happened getting out of the shower…the heat kicked on. Strange, I thought, that the heat should kick on especially since I’d turned the thermostat way down with the sudden mid-Spring heat wave when the delightful NY temp’s soared past ninety! Okay, sure, temp’s… Read full post »

“Come quick, there’s an emergency at mommy’s.” Not the words I’d want to hear on any given day but considering that my mother had just gotten home from major surgery they really weren’t words I wanted to hear.

My sister sounded out of breath and frazzled and… Read full post »

Last night I went to my brother’s house to hear my niece read her sixth grade English report entitled ‘When I Grow Up’. I wasn’t sure why this rendition of composition English couldn’t have waited until the weekend when I actually had time to invest in the recitation but… Read full post »

It’s an internet world, everything is done on line. We shop on line, we buy movie tickets on line, we find old friends on line and we date on line. My last remaining single girlfriend recently met the love of her life on line. She persuaded me to join. I was… Read full post »

Unlike most of my friends, I liked high school. I liked my teachers and I did well in my classes. Not that I was a genius or anything, I just liked learning new things and most of my classes came easy to me. Except math but I’m not sure math comes… Read full post »

When I was just two years old my baby sister arrived. My mother beamed at me about how lucky I was to have a new baby sister and I immediately went over to the cradle, peered in and poked my new baby sister in her eye. We’ve had a lifelong adversarial… Read full post »

I can’t help but love Lucy. The way she’s always getting into such mischief. You just know from the look in her eyes that there’s hijinks afoot. I could watch her all day long. Oh, you think I’m talking about the screwball comedy red-head. No, I’m talking about the five… Read full post »

People like to throw around the phrase ‘it doesn’t matter’ with all degrees of cavalier frequency. Don’t worry about your hair, it doesn’t matter... Forget about the run in your stocking, it doesn’t matter... No one’s going to care if we’re late, it doe… Read full post »

I know neither the author nor the origin of this heartwrenching prayer. I know only that it says better than I seem able why I founded Irving House. If the words you read here touch your heart in any manner, please go to www.irvinghouse.org and help us to keep helping them.… Read full post »