A passionate fisherman has left us all too early. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Bob (Hawkeye) Jacobs has passed on. This is a tough one.

I came to the woods late in the game. Trees, now my guides, beckon and enlighten. I swear they talk to me. And I am learning to listen.

Goodbyes are hard and often left unspoken. People avoid the emotions associated with goodbyes: sadness, anxiety, loss, even anger. Our avoidance is perhaps a natural part of the letting go.

Not long after my mother died in 2014, my dad and I performed a ritual familiar to anyone who has lost someone they love.

My parents have been married for 53 years and by all accounts get along wonderfully together.

At the college radio station where I worked, the poster hung on the wall. Prince hadn’t broken wide when his song Controversy found WPRK.