There is Beauty Everywhere Even the tattered tarp that covers the woodpile, battered as it is by the bitter wind, cups a puddle of rainwater in its folds, which it offers now, like a chalice, to the t...Read More
Note to a Young Parent Despite the vastness of your love, you, too, will undoubtedly encounter a particular brokenness in yourself so deep that you cannot traverse it, even for your children’s sake....Read More
Pure Possibility I. When I was born, I was pure possibility, just a brand new body with a fresh brain, ready for connection. Those connections unlocked my potential but also narrowed it. They rooted m...Read More
Ideas Some people believe We are surrounded by ghosts, Old spirits who hang on, Wanting what they didn’t get- Revenge, Lost love, Closure. I don’t believe in ghosts. We will all leave behind A lif...Read More
Missed Boat There was a time when I looked at other people’s expansive homes, their accomplishments, their travels, and I got the sense that we had somehow missed the boat. We hadn’t gotten news t...Read More
Introversion When I am around a lot of people, there is a little scribe in my brain who insists on taking notes, processing every single interaction. He is very thorough and writes slowly with his tin...Read More
Quiet Waits For Me Whether it be the leaf falling silently unseen, the heartbeat of a tiny bird, tucked beneath its wing, or the endless flow of the river far away, quiet is the constant backdrop of m...Read More
Questions About Place Can you ever really know a place? You show up, dwell in it for a short time or long, but you never know its whole history. What happened here before- a day ago, a decade, a centu...Read More
If I Could Tell You Just One Thing If I could tell you just one thing, it would be this- beneath the daily disappointments, beneath the layers of frustration, anger, sadness, beneath even your despair...Read More
November November. I remember the long days of anticipation as I neared the end of pregnancy, watching for any sign of labor. November is waiting. All the unknowns were still ahead. How would I face t...Read More
Pace Imagine the sound of a cloud moving leisurely across the sky, a pine tree’s imperceptible growth compelled by its longing for light, a gentle rain’s slow slide down the pane, the sigh ali...Read More
Beyond Words Each morning, I write and write my way to the edge, then let go and soar. This is where I find You- beyond words. My spirit renewed, I experience You in all creation, recognize You in eve...Read More
What if? What if, instead of living in its shadow, we shone just the gentlest light into the secret corners of our grief? What if, instead of pushing it away, we held the trembling animal of shame in ...Read More
Just When Just when I am most unsettled, walking the frayed edge of anxiety, an unexpectedly quiet, rainy afternoon comes along and like a deep exhalation, peace settles in once again. B...Read More
Numbers My father died at fifty-nine, the age that I am now. My mother lived on another thirty-six years, which happens to be the number that I have been married. Sure, these are just the kind of mean...Read More
Granddaughter We are walking together across the blazing blacktop. Sweat blossoms on my lip and brow. She is talking, talking, talking. Her hand, as if it knows its own language, the language of trust...Read More
Late Afternoon There are plenty of days that I let this moment pass, just keep working, ignore the slant afternoon sun’s beckoning call. Come, it says. Rest. Linger for a while. You have worked hard...Read More
Stones All day long, I am recalling a long ago moment, faded and vague. All that is left is younger you, reaching for a rumpled bundle of flowers that you had somehow secured to your bike. All that is...Read More
Weary When overwhelmed by the abrasiveness of information coming in, too fast, too disturbing to absorb, I let my mind rest for a bit in the silent prayer of familiar daily tasks and that is often jus...Read More
How I Want To Remember Us We were all there, the whole family, sitting on a blanket together. Waiting. An entire history of events had brought us to that moment, including tragedy and grief that I was...Read More
Enough Eventually, you decide that this is enough. You stop striving for more, for different. Or maybe you realize that while you have been grasping for all of that, this has been ripening into someth...Read More