Lonny Cain

5 days ago | shawlocal.com | Lonny Cain

Follow me, please. We’re taking a little walk through my house. My home, like most homes, I believe, is full of displays. Photos, paintings, ornaments and plants. Stuff like that. It’s become a museum reflecting those who live here, including Tucker, our dog. People are not lining up for tours, though. And I confess that sometimes I wish they did. (Note to wife: Relax. I’m making a point here. There will be no public tours.)Our home is our sanctum. Our safe and private place, we hope.

1 week ago | shawlocal.com | Lonny Cain

“Dodge and weave! Dodge and weave!”That’s me shouting my life advice for the day. I usually say it with tongue in cheek. I am sort of joking, adding a bit of humor to a basic truth … that life is stressful. Stress spills out over a wide spectrum. Trying to open a jar of pickles is one thing. Mourning the loss of a loved one is much different. Whatever the stress, I am told it does damage. There are days I feel like I’m in the fast lane full of crazy drivers – and it’s full of potholes.

2 weeks ago | shawlocal.com | Lonny Cain

“A room without books is like a body without soul.” I love that quote from Cicero. He’d be happy to know that my basement shelves are full of soul. My love of books should be well known by anyone who knows me or reads these weekly chats. But today I want to share your love of books. Two weeks ago, I got sentimental about my history with libraries and shared that journey with you. A few days later, I posted that column on social media. The response was comforting.

3 weeks ago | shawlocal.com | Lonny Cain

I had my moment. I kept telling myself that when we drove away from the hospital Sunday afternoon. I had seen the hard truth on Saturday. Sarah’s tiny frame on the hospital bed. Her face covered with a mask feeding her oxygen. She looked so young. Maybe it was the haircut her daughter had given her. No one’s hair looks good in a hospital bed, but strangely, her hair looked beautiful. Clearly, every breath was a strain. And a victory. She had told us she was going to fight the lung cancer.

1 month ago | shawlocal.com | Lonny Cain

Elburn, Illinois. Third grade. If I’m getting sentimental about libraries, I must start there, when I borrowed my first book. I have few surviving memories of grade school, most of them involving the fenced-in playground area with a pole I climbed, my friend Ray and the tree stump he carved into a small engineering project, and a neighboring house where we were pretty sure a witch lived. But I do remember one part of my classroom.