Dropping Pebbles in the Pond

This collection of personal reflections explores events, episodes, and feelings from my past. Each one is prompted by an artifact, something that tumbled out of a long unopened box-a tiny address book in which I wrote a "novel" at age 7, a practice bagpipe which I haven't played for many years, a newspaper clipping of a tragic accident, a letter written by my great-grandfather during the Civil War, a Starbucks latte cup made to provide coffee intravenously, and many more. These prompts call up memories that crisscross my years, from age 7 to 74. The reflections probe what the stories say and mean to me looking back across a long lifetime.