I’ve been wondering lately about this recurring dream. I’m on the ice making figure eights in my heavy, Riedell boots, the blade cutting precisely. The sound of metal slices through the powdery surface as I skate across the unforgiving sheets below. I move out of the pattern and grow bold…

According to maternal lore, I was supposed to be a twin. My mother grew so fat when she was pregnant that her doctors thought perhaps there were two of us hiding inside her swollen womb. Doctors even heard two heartbeats at one point and when her weight tipped 200 lbs…

My second son came into the world on a rainy day with “El Fuego” in his eyes and in his heart. You could almost see it reflecting off the stainless steel instruments, gurney and in the sweaty forehead of the obstetrician as she placed him in my arms. I hesitated…