Michael Marshall

Saturday afternoon. Sitting on the patio as the temperature sours past eighty‑three‑degrees, idly wondering how to unplug my brain to relax.  Around me, birds are unusually busy.  There’s the sharp caw of a woodpecker, the measured, rhythmic call of a cardinal, and the steady “cheep-cheep-cheep” of yellow finches chirping.  It’s a blend of something akin to nature’s version of white noise.  I can hear my soft breathing now. I find relaxation mode.   I’ve come outside to write

October 2025 “I can’t tell you what’s next.” That’s part of the conversation we had at the dinner table as I struggled to figure out where this feeling of disillusionment in America came from.  My America, the land of the free and the home of brave bumps and grinds its way through turbulent times while a leader I have nothing in common with, revels in dishonor, disrespect, and disorder.  A few days ago, I watched someone’s well-orchestrated TikTok post preach hard-hitting tru

JANUARY 2025 He comes and he goes.  Leading up to inauguration day, he stopped for a visit to talk about what he sees as he watches from wherever he’s spending time, somewhere up in heaven. That’s my best friend, Tim.  My guess is that he’s checking on me, not to cause me pain, but to help ease  the pain of the emotions I’ve been coping with lately.  Tim knows my thoughts concerning the new administration and the person who’ll soon to take the oath of office.  Tim knows the w

It was easy for me to describe what I felt when I first encountered you.  I had a sense about what to expect.  Afterall, you have been...

Prior to January 17, 1995, I didn’t have much knowledge of Kobe, Japan.  Kobe is a chic port city on Osaka Bay in the western part of the...

Nagoya, Japan, November 2011.  Memories of visiting Japan’s fourth largest city with Shigeo – in his home country, are special.  It’s not...

This is not a story about the weather. We all know the effect of climate change and its impact on our daily lives – felt coast to coast and around the world. A south Pacific hurricane reached the southern California shoreline in 2023, searing temperatures scorched regions of the world as if ignited by a giant blow torch, and wildfires burned fields and hillsides now parched from a record-breaking drought. Climate change is happening exactly as science experts predicted. I

Trains, boats, and planes. I’ll take cars over any of them. My love affair with automobiles dates back to the 1960s, when I was a kid. ...

This is a story about love. A simple four-letter word that evokes powerful emotion no matter the place, the kingdom, or time. I’ve...

“Equality requires acknowledgment of inequality.” When I read Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion recently, I was...

A near death experience... I saw them all. Dad, Mom, Jackie, Joyce, Dineen, and Tye. They are the members of my immediate family who...

Shortly after waking up on the cold December 19th morning, I checked the news headlines on my mobile phone and there it was, “Steeler...

It was a memorial service broadcast via Skype in December 2021. Days of COVID-19 kept us all at home and not in central Florida where...

I saw shades of red, yellow, brown, orange, green, and purple bursting in every direction. It was autumn in all of its glory. I kept...

It may have been that first note of the haunting orchestral violin introduction. Or maybe it was the steady rhythm of the bass line. I recall thinking, as an aspiring young trumpet player, that one day I would hit the notes heard throughout the mesmerizing melody. That melody, the theme from the hit television series, Perry Mason , means many things to me. Most notably, it serves as a trigger for memories of Grand Pop and Grand Mom on Virginia’s eastern shore. The TV show

For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by flight. The flight of a butterfly, the flight of a bird, the flight of a...

This is an excerpt from the photo/travel memoir I'm working on. The book is targeted for completion later this year, in the Fall of 2021....

(Like so many of us, I need a vacation. A few months ago, I found myself thinking about memorable events from memorable vacations. This...

The suspense build-up from waiting to be a part of life on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic has been mind-bending. Most of us...

Parisians are used to hearing British English in and around their city. After all, Great Britain is just a short 2-1/2 hour Eurostar...