When I consider how best and briefly to describe our times, the word that keeps returning to my page is “heavy.” There’s the weighty matter of mortality in the pandemic and its attendant losses. There’s the hefty and horrifying legacy of racial oppression hoisted into the public square by repeated state-sanctioned racialized violence. And there’s […]
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It first appeared in our yard the Monday of election week. With so much on the line, I guess I was looking for a sign – and afraid of getting one I didn’t want. So the arrival of a white rock dove – as emblematic of peace as anything I could have conjured – was […]
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Journey is a word we often use for challenging times when outcomes or even the path toward them is unknown. At its most basic, the dictionary defines it as “an act of traveling from one place to another.” It adds that a journey can also be, “a long and often difficult process of personal change […]
+ Read MoreThe poet John O’Donohue wrote that “A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen.” He said, “To be in the world is to be distant from the homeland of wholeness. We are confined by limitation and difficulty. When we bless, we are enabled somehow to go beyond […]
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I am afraid of fire. Ever since I fell into a campfire, hands first as a child, I have a fearful memory for the searing pain it causes. Now, following George Floyd’s murder by a white police officer last week, my city is in flames – fires set long ago with the persistent heat and […]
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Rhythms of Resilience I’m watching for the first delicate crocuses to break through the hardened crust of the March ground. Yellow, purple and white, their short blooms open like small cups of sunlight. But by night, the delicate blossoms close up, waiting until dawn coaxes them to yawn agape again. Their daily opening and closing […]
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My grandfather knew how to keep time moving. Head bent over the wooden jeweler’s bench at the back of his jewelry store and peering through a small magnifying loop attached to his glasses, he repaired watches. He patiently disassembled gears and springs, then putting them back together so they could once again keep time. In this […]
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