We can be deeply joyful and filled to overflowing with profound sorrow – both at the same time. We need not be only one or the other. Even in the darkest places to which I have traveled, there is light, and I am grateful. If it were not so, how Read more…
It is a journey like no other – to sit with a loved one while knowing that their death is weeks, days, hours, or even minutes away, knowing that there is no way to stop it. In those moments that are different than any we have ever known, there is Read more…
When you get to 3000 feet, pull! Heart hammering! Eyes like the prairie sky. Go! Arch! I arch. I plummet. I howl with manic delight. It is too big, too much! It cannot be contained. It will not be hemmed in with words. My voice will utter the sounds but Read more…
“The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World” is an achingly beautiful novel, a study in grief and renewal penned by Laura Imai Messina. Her words allowed me to weep. They begged me to reread pages and paragraphs again and again. Her words made me long for things undone, Read more…
They are all gone now, and perhaps it is a small mercy. For them to witness the current state of the world would be heartbreaking. My dad was in World War Two. My grandfathers were in World War One. My oldest brother was a commando and a peace keeper. But Read more…
What are you doing today? Nothing. Really? Nothing? Yep. Nothing. Won’t you be bored? I don’t think so. Oh… So what are you going to do? Sit. Maybe read. Have coffee. Later on have tea. Maybe go for a walk. Maybe sit on a bench in Narnia. And listen to Read more…
With thanks to CS Lewis, I am in Narnia. It is my own private Narnia on the borderlands of the city. It is my frequent refuge, my quietude. It is the place where rolling hills begin to settle gently, becoming sprawling, impossibly vast plains, where coyotes, moose and many, many Read more…
It’s the old folks who will trip you up. They have enough sunsets behind them that they will ambush you hard. You’ll never see it coming and when it arrives, it’ll knock you into next week – the place your mom threatened to send you if you talked back like Read more…