A Life in Letters — Jamie Hughes

I’ve always liked the quote, “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” Some folks think it was penned by the Scottish author Ian Maclaren (sometimes MacLaren). Others attribute the quote…

It’s been a couple weeks since my last column, and things with my mother have proven more challenging than we expected. She’s had another minor procedure to stop fluid from building up in her chest, but she is…

Well, dear readers, I took a bit of time off from writing this column, but not by choice. January was an incredibly hectic 31 days, and I spent most of them living with my parents in Florida. Why?…

One of my favorite episodes of “I Love Lucy” is the one where Lucy and Ethel get up to some hijinks (and don’t they always?) in a candy factory. You know the one. At first, the bonbons…

If there’s one thing those of us who have multiple sclerosis (MS) know all too well, it’s that life requires balance. Fellow columnists and I have written about the need to find a happy medium when…

Well, dear readers, I finally did it. The recital I’ve been telling you about finally took place after several long delays and a good bit of scrambling, and all those singing lessons were finally put on display…

I’m a fairly neat and tidy person, but you wouldn’t have thought that if you’d looked in my kitchen over the last few weeks. Bottles of oils, jars full of melted wax, bags of butters and soaps, and boxes…

In one of my favorite scenes of the 1970s movie “The Goodbye Girl,” Paula McFadden (played by Marsha Mason) begs Elliot Garfield (played by Richard Dreyfuss) to quit playing the guitar late at night when he can’t…

A voracious reader since childhood, I’ve often lost myself inside fictional worlds — often preferring them to the real one where I’m forced to live. This was especially true when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) almost…

There’s a poignant scene in “Forrest Gump” in which the title character and his best friend, Jenny, walk up to the shack where she was raised (and was raped and abused by her drunken father). She stares…

My eldest son just started high school, which makes me feel both incredibly old and somewhat proud of myself for surviving this long. People have been telling me the teenage years are the hardest, but I have a leg…

When I was a kid, I adored novelty. I always wanted something different to experience, a new place to go. In my mind, there was nothing worse than doing the same thing week in and week out. However,…

For the last few months, I’ve been mired in something I can only describe as a funk. My job, my family, my faith, my entire life — no matter what aspect we’re talking about, I felt like I was…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are somehow lucky enough to live on your own desert island, you’ve probably noticed that things are kinda difficult these days. I mean, COVID-19 is still a thing, and now…

Back in November, I told you all about my decision to start taking vocal lessons with a coach. Well, I’ve been at it for about eight months or so, taking an hour-long lesson every other week, and while…

The last few months have been a bit stressful, to say the least, and with the thousand and one worries and distractions I was facing, I couldn’t help but think of the opening lines of a William Wordsworth…

I recently did a little research to write an article reflecting on a photograph of the Library of Celsus. This marvelous piece of architecture was commissioned by a Roman consul named Gaius Julius Aquila as a funerary…

The last few years have been rough for a whole host of reasons, and I think it’s safe to say that most of us in the United States feel utterly lost and burnt out. There’s no shortage of…

Last weekend was a busy one. On Friday, I had to drop my eldest son at school at 5:30 a.m. for a field trip and then pick him up at 11 p.m. A nap wasn’t in the cards, I’m…