A Life in Letters — Jamie Hughes

I don’t know why I find it so impossible to sit still. I feel like every moment I’m not engaged in some creative pursuit, I’m somehow missing out. Or worse, I’m squandering what poet Mary Oliver calls my…

As hard as it is to believe, another school year is drawing to a close. It still somehow takes me by surprise every time. It feels like just yesterday that I was buying new shoes and helping my eldest…

I don’t really like problems. And I don’t think I’m alone in this. No one I know wakes up hoping a seemingly insurmountable obstacle or painful trial is flung smack in the middle of their path. If it were…

Well, dear reader, my time in Florida is coming to an end. Mom is home from the hospital after her surgery and a stint in rehab. She has begun outpatient physical therapy, and slowly but surely, she’s getting…

I have a friend who’s truly blessed. Aside from the typical struggles that come with being an adult, he has few problems. Seriously. Neither he nor a loved one has had any major medical issues. No one in his…

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…