I’ve met my granddaughter’s school bus at least a hundred times. Each time, we’ve shared a simple, happy walk home. She often asks, Did Papa come today? Most days, I explain that he had to stay home to work. But on this day, when the bus rolled to a stop, I watched her face as she spotted Papa standing on the sidewalk. Her eyes filled with love. Pure love. The joy-filled kind we all need. I watched as she ran to him. I took her backpack and handed her an umbrella. Then I followed behind as...

I like to think I’m a good housekeeper—or in my case, a cabin -keeper. I do the usual things to keep up with it. And honestly, in such a small place, it’s not too hard. But then I saw him (her?). Nestled on the second-to-bottom log in the bathroom, he had created a very sweet, neatly netted web. Yes. A spider. And for my arachnid-phobic family members: you’ve been warned. When I leaned down to admire his craftsmanship, he instantly scuttled to the far side of the log—clearly aware of my reach...

I stared at the pin on the map. This was the location of my son —hiking solo in the mountains of Chile. Thanks to technology, we’d been able to FaceTime twice during this odyssey. This was a journey to a place he’d never been, but had always wanted to see. With mountaineering training, and his high school-level Spanish, he met locals and explored thoroughly. He traversed miles by bus, ferry, and catamaran, through regions of Argentina and Chile. Hiking nearly eighty-five miles of mountainous...