I recently challenged myself to give up watching TV for a week. I thought it would be hard to do, but I’m finding there are plenty of other, more engaging ways, to while away the evening. Like jigsaw puzzles and reading, listening to music, even … [Continue reading]
When the Best I Can Do Is Pray
The last number of months, I’ve been praying every day. For safety. For courage. For peace. It has become part of my routine, like drinking tea in the morning or brushing my teeth. Most often, I lie quietly on the couch, but sometimes I pause along … [Continue reading]
Hope Arrives Like the Tap, Tap, Tapping of a Woodpecker
They come out of nowhere, seemingly all at once. The tap, tap, tapping of a woodpecker in one of the dead sycamores in my yard. Then various chirps and twitters. Swirls of goldfinches; I hear the whisper of their wings. A chickadee. Bushtits and … [Continue reading]
Nesting in Place: How A Few Backyard Birds are Teaching Me to Listen
It started with a pandemic. And a bird fluttering by my office window. Back and forth in my line of sight, distracting me from whatever seemed more important at the time. Paying bills or googling how to fix a running toilet. Or maybe I was making a … [Continue reading]
Wanderlust Publishes My Blog Post About Morocco
I'm excited to announce that my blog post, A Call to Prayer: Morocco, was recently published online in Wanderlust: A Travel Journal. During my trip to Morocco, I was struck by the religious imperative to pray five times a day. Of course, I had no … [Continue reading]
Introverts Have the Edge: A Virus Teaches Us How to Spend Time Alone
Gertrude is freaking out. I don’t blame her. She’s an extrovert and now we've been ordered to shelter in place for a month. But she’s not making it any easier on herself. The news is on full tilt and she’s watching the stock market plunge. There are … [Continue reading]
Iceland: How Adversity Might Save the Planet
You can’t visit Iceland without thinking—now here’s a people who’ve truly made the best of a bad situation. The landscape is stark and unforgiving: Scalding hot geysers. Craggy lava rock. Steam spewing to the surface heaving gray and … [Continue reading]
The Rescue: A Short Story
The stranger who rescued him was a dark-skinned woman. She'd been wearing a green dress with flowers and a matching sweater, delicate pearl buttons running down the front. She smelled exotic like rose petals. All he wanted to do was to thank … [Continue reading]
Colombian Courtesy: The Declining Cost of a Tinto
A sign at a café in Medellín illustrates the Colombiano passion for courtesy. Un tinto—a small cup of black coffee—costs $2000 Colombian pesos. Or about 65 cents. Ask for your tinto with a simple “por favor” and the price immediately … [Continue reading]
Thin Places: The Possibility of Transformation
At the time of the winter solstice, the veil between heaven and earth narrows, opening us to the possibility of transformation. In some spiritual traditions, it’s called a thin place, an idea that captured my attention enough to use it as the title … [Continue reading]