Autumn had the potential to be an exciting season. My daughter started her freshman year of high school. She loved all her classes, flourished in the drama department, and was content in ways that delighted me. My son played fall football, and began his final year of middle school. I’m surprising with him football game […]
Stronger Than We Know
My only son turned 13 last month. I cried the better part of three days. A memory from his childhood would spring up before me, and tears would pool in a sea of nostalgia. The year he was born, I was still young, more girl than woman. His older sister came only a month after trying […]
The Sacred Rhythm of Public & Private Life
I’ve been discouraged the past few weeks. Seattle has to be one of the most dreary places to live in the middle of winter. We’ve been in the thick of incessant rain, gray clouds, and short days. The weather has been frustrating, but mainly, I’ve felt discouraged about my life as a writer. I love […]
In Poverty and Wealth
As a kid growing up, my family consistently lived in between the margins of financial frustration. We vacillated between not quite enough, and just enough to get by. Very rarely did we have anything that could be defined as overflow. My dad was a union carpenter who worked from dawn to dusk pounding nails in […]