One shoulder slides up, the other one down. Fingers drum lightly along the table top. Boots tap against the floor. “Hmmm, that’s a very good beat, isn’t it,” says my mother, making more of a statement than asking a question. “I never could dance,” she tells me as she continues to move her shoulders to [...]

Guest post by my sister Cathy The pies were in the pie basket. Apple and pumpkin, and custard for my mum. The cinnamon rolls were tucked in beside the pies. The odor was bringing back wonderful memories of past Thanksgiving dinners. I stopped to pick up Mum and then it was on to the feast [...]

“Do you know where Diane took me this afternoon?” my mother exclaimed when we got home. “She took me to visit a nursing home. Can you believe that?” “Did you have a good time?” my nephew Mike asked. “Oh, yes, I had a wonderful time. Everyone was so nice and the place is lovely. I [...]

When my mother was a girl, she used to spend summers at her grandparents’ farm in Strickland, Maine. It was a special time and place for her and she has regaled us with stories for as long as I can remember. I knew that out of her love of the farm grew a love of [...]

Allison Kennie, who’s in her early 30s, was looking for something different to help her get back in shape after she had her daughter a few years ago. Friends suggested Punk Rope. If you’ve never heard of Punk Rope, it’s kind of a cross between recess and boot camp. It was created by Tim Haft, [...]

Benelli is one lucky yellow Lab. A few months ago she was in a Georgia shelter slated to be euthanized and now she has a new home in Maine — safe and sound with Dustin, Lindsay and Gauge, also a rescue dog. […]

Many congratulations to the Cancer Community Center for being named this year’s 6 Who Care Agency of Distinction! Take a look at this wonderful video produced by Channel 6 and please take a moment to send your own congratulations in a comment at the end of the post. […]

My grand nephew Myles was pretty excited about Hurricane Sandy. Couldn’t wait to get home from school to turn on the television and the computer so he could check the weather reports. He even put together a survival kit. […]

Ordinarily, Maine artist Francine Schrock prefers to paint in solitude. She recently took a risk and ventured outside of her studio. The opportunity led her down an unexpected path. Courtesy Jim Hall Photography […]

Great news from the Cancer Community Center in South Portland. With the help of sponsors and more than 750 bicyclists, runners, and walkers the Center raised more than $80,000 at its Fight Back Festival at Pineland Farms last weekend. The goal was $75,000. Congratulations! Bicyclists […]

Back in 2005, Chris Kuhn and his colleague and friend Dave Langdon were trying to come up with a name for a celebratory lobster bake and bike ride they planned to host. They settled on Not Dead Yet, straight out of one of Chris’s favorite movies, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” An excerpt, courtesy [...]

Tuesday was the Swett family bike ride. I didn’t ride, I was part of the picnic crew. The plan was that we would all meet at Two Lights State Park around noon. The 12 cyclists, ranging in age from 10 to 63, pedaled off mid-morning from CycleMania, where the out-of-towners rented bikes. [...]

For the past two years, a group of Gorham residents has been trying to get the Maine Department of Transportation to stop spraying herbicides along the Mountain Division Rail Trail, which passes through Gorham. […]

I was once an x-ray tech at Maine Medical Center. I didn’t have x-ray vision, but I was skilled at aiming a beam of radiation at the appropriate body part. When I first started my training, we developed the x-rays by hand. I still remember the smell of the chemicals in the darkroom. It was [...]

This week the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced its final recommendation against PSA screening for prostate cancer for men of all ages. […]

Want your kids to eat their vegetables? Serve them with water. That’s the advice of T. Bettina Cornwell of the University of Oregon and Anna McAlister of Michigan State University. The two researchers were involved in two separate studies about food and drink choices. Their findings were just published in the journal Appetite. [...]

Dick Johnson started playing the trombone in the seventh grade. He wanted to play the French horn. “When I was in the sixth grade,” he says, “we had a music room at the elementary school and they had all the instruments of the orchestra in big pictures and I saw the French horn. The French [...]

Ann Hutchins’ grandson Garrett Stevens Everywhere I go I run into someone who tells me a story that catches my interest. Ann Hutchins, for instance. We were seated together at the Go Red For Women Luncheon last month when she told me about her grandson Garrett. He’d been very, very sick recently [...]

Moonlit Stars by Annette Bryce Shalom House Art Program Shalom is a Hebrew word that means peace. It is also the name of an organization in Portland, Maine that has brought peace of mind to thousands of people affected by mental illness. Shalom House. […]

Nine people sit around the table. They were all chatting when I entered the room and stopped to acknowledge and welcome me as I sat down. I look at them as a group and then as individuals. I notice nothing unusual. I tell you this because looking like ordinary people, while mostly a good thing, [...]

The color red. Exciting. Stimulating. Attention-getting. It’s the highest arc of the rainbow, the color with the longest wavelength. It makes us react more quickly and forcefully. It is the color of blood, symbolizing life and vitality. It is Tuesday’s color. Today, Tuesday, March 6, 2012, everywhere I looked I saw red, even when I caught [...]