Over forty stories for these "Widening Gyre Times" (to reference William Butler Yeat's poem, "The Second Coming"), which serves as an underlying theme. Stories for these times, unlike any other, when "the center cannot hold", things everywhere are "falling apart", and "the best lack all conviction". Stories mostly of small town life, many centering about an upstate lake village, but with universal themes. Told in an entertaining, evocative and readable manner. Stories at first with a tranquil, everyday flow, but in the current turmoil taking on compelling significance. In the face of changes occurring politically, these stories tell us to uphold one another, hold to our convictions, hold on to our honor, our souls. The process takes recognizing where truth has gone astray-- to call out wrongs and join with fellow citizens in doing so-- loudly-- while excluding none. Then hold to our joys. Adhere to love, reject divisions. Remember to rejoice that not all is bleak. Cherish what makes us human, the themes of these stories: narratives coming down from our parents, their romance, their dreams and ambitions; tales from our genealogy, our ancestors. Stories on: a youth taking a long-trek crossing of the lake in a rowboat; close calls experienced with ICE agents and threat thereof; a sister living out west and recently dying, her family bringing her ashes back to her lake home; an attorney from a firm in New York targeted by Trump nevertheless taking a meditative break by train ride back home upstate, to spend time with family; a "simple" gardener who admirably helps others in a neighborhood as he recoups from a harried, more complicated past; an ominous crossing of a frozen lake in winter with a reckless brother in law; a dreamlike flight over a snow covered village, revealing closer connections; skating during youth at two different ponds, conjuring different struggles; overhearing of a neighbor's job loss due to DOGE cutbacks, resolving to help despite political divides; importance of respecting facts and withholding of judgment as to cause of a recent plane crash-- i.e., the immutability of facts; holding close to relatives experiencing recent death loss; holding Zen-like to a conviction that doing right ultimately prevails, that there is a larger, not always apparent plan, as seen also in nature; commiserating with sister in California going through wildfires; importance of occasionally retreating to a peaceful place and of pacing oneself, so as to still keep in the fray; rejection of climate change denialism and decimation of EPA; heroism in protecting vulnerable asylum seekers, swept off without due process; much more. All a sampling of these widening gyre times.