I am still learning how to live I live still learning how to live into the empty spaces, to sit within them quietly rather than fill them quickly just to keep anxiety and guilt at bay. I am still lear...Read More
Other People Of course, the big lessons came from family members, teachers, the major players in your life. But there were other, less obvious people, too. You know who they were- a neighbor whose kid...Read More
February Outside, all is dismal gray, the yard, the sky the dirt splattered cars driving by. Even homes that two months ago, glowed with color and life- all gray, as if they’ve given up hope. Inside...Read More
Breath In and out, in and out, in and out. In and out, tree and me, we breathe one another. Lung to leaf, she inhales my breath to build her body. Bronchioles branch, delivering her gift to all my cel...Read More
Rhythm of the Sea It took a day and night to arrive in Ireland by plane. My spirit, however, lagged behind, gliding slowly over land and ocean. It was carried in by the tide to the Antrim Coast where ...Read More
Missed Connections Real life is hard. We are busy, distracted, preoccupied. My words are insufficient, awkward. I say the wrong things or I don’t know what to say at all. We just keep missing connec...Read More
Sledding We walked that day through falling snow, dragging our sleds behind us. Through cold wind, into the heat of exertion and beyond to the perfect hill- an abandoned roadbed, gradual slope, smooth...Read More
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