This fall, I’m teaching Creative Writing to a couple of high school students. During our introductory class on poetry, one of the girls asked me to share some of my poems with them. I told her I didn’t write much poetry. She asked me why not, and my mind stuttered on the question. Why not, … Continue reading "On Poetry and Politics"
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Posted:
September 22, 2020
Under:
This Thing Called Life
This past weekend, Jonathan sent me away. That is, he booked three nights in a secluded cottage in the woods. He ordered meals for me from HelloFresh (which, by the way, is a genius way of feeding yourself in a vacation rental). He took Friday afternoon and all day Monday off, and gave me a … Continue reading "What I Lose, What I Gain"
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Posted:
August 25, 2020
Under:
Family and Parenting
Things have an apocalyptic (in the world-ending sense of the word) feel to them these days. A massive explosion in Lebanon. Wildfires and rolling blackouts here at home. A derecho storm taking out swaths of the Midwest. Back-to-back hurricanes threatening the southern US. Shady governmental dealings in Belarus and Russia and China (okay, so, nothing … Continue reading "Toddler Steps and the End of the World"
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Posted:
July 31, 2020
Under:
Loving God
About a month ago, I bought sunflowers. Our local CSA had them on offer for $1 a stem, five-gallon buckets full of bright beauty, cut fresh that morning. I’m no home-decorator. Flowers aren’t my love language. I don’t fawn over bouquets. But they caught my eye when I picked up our veggies for the week, … Continue reading "On Sunflowers, Gratitude, and Joy"
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Posted:
May 15, 2020
Under:
Loving God
Seven years ago, I became an armchair expert in adoption law. Our attorney gave us printed copies of the relevant California Supreme Court cases, dozens of pages of small-print legalese. I pored over them, highlighter in hand, noting similarities between those cases and ours. I constructed a meticulous timeline of events. I typed up a … Continue reading "What I Can Control"
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Posted:
May 08, 2020
Under:
Family and Parenting
Eight weeks ago, when the term “social distancing” was just beginning to infiltrate our national vocabulary, when the first wave of events was being cancelled out of an “abundance of caution,” when toilet paper memes were starting to make their way around social media, the two small girls of this house decided to play one … Continue reading "Stories from Lockdown"
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Posted:
April 02, 2020
Under:
Loving God
We woke to fog yesterday. As late as Sunday, the local Facebook weather guy was forecasting spring warmth for this week. Monday, he said, we’d see partly cloudy weather, but Tuesday would be the first of several dry and sunny days. He was wrong. A rarity, for him. The first half of this week was … Continue reading "Finding Hope in the Fog"
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Posted:
March 26, 2020
Under:
Family and Parenting
Confession: we have not done much that resembles “school” around here the last few days. This, despite the fact that we have nowhere to go, no place to be except home. This, despite the fact that we are used to this homeschooling gig and have not been thrust into it involuntarily like so many others. … Continue reading "How to Use This Time Well"
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Posted:
March 23, 2020
Under:
This Thing Called Life
Recently, my phone has become a black hole, somehow pulling me toward it with more force than usual. I’ve been sucked into the cycle, checking the constantly-updated pages of the major media outlets for the latest news whenever I have a spare moment. I know this is no way to live a life, even a … Continue reading "How to Live During a Pandemic"
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Posted:
March 19, 2020
Under:
This Thing Called Life
Here in the northern hemisphere, today is the first day of spring. You may have missed this, given all that is happening in the world. I almost did. It’s a small, seemingly inconsequential thing, buried as it is amongst death tolls and job losses and “shelter-in-place” orders. Easy to let it slip by, unnoticed, unmarked. … Continue reading "Spring is Here"
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