It was the lake. It wasn't lonely.

I went to get away from everything. Even her. She was jealous of my connection to it. Whenever I needed a rest, I would go to find peace floating among the waves.

It created tension between us. Repeatedly.

"You're going there again, are you?" she'd say. "I won't bother waiting."

It wasn't until our 23rd year, after the last of our kids left home, that she passed.

I was free. Free to go to my lake. Without reproach. Yet I didn't feel free.

There was no one to come back to. The house was silent. Hollow. The kids didn't call. They were busy.

There was nothing. Except the lake.

I cursed it. For all the years I could have spent with her, I took her for granted. I wasted my time at the damned lake.

Yet I could go back to nothing. So I went to the lake. Out on the waters, searching for peace. To find only cold and resentment.

My mother turned 75 today, and when I called to wish her a happy birthday, she was crying. The Medicaid funding bill that passed today has her alarmed. Living on Social Security and dwindling retirement savings, any threat to her healthcare feels like a threat to her survival. The future suddenly seems precarious. But the loneliness hurt even more. Her best friend Lucille died of liver cancer late last year so no more birthday calls from her familiar voice. Roger, her other close

I've done it again! I've come up with another crazy concoction! This is what you get when you try to boil beans and rice together and then apply the basic structure of a chili recipe and the whole thing snowballs.

Fair warning: This stuff isn't going to look pretty. It's not about looking pretty. It's about cooking up a healthy hearty batch meal that can serve you for lunch and/or dinner over the course