UP CLOSE & FAR OUT
On one of our recent Zoom calls, we were talking about how much we all miss being “up close and personal.” Of course we do. It’s been an upheaving damned year in a lot of ways, and restrictions on how…
CLAP ON CLAP OFF
At the start of our online ballet-afrique dance class a couple of weeks ago, my brilliant and magical friend Romy shared that there had been a raccoon scare around their chicken coop the night before. When she heard the commotion…
LANDSLIDE
A friend and I were talking politics. Because even though just about every conversation with almost everyone in my life these days begins with “Let’s not talk about politics,” inevitably we can’t help ourselves and fall headfirst into it anyway.…
PEACE OF PIE
My brother, Joe, reminded me of an exchange around the breakfast table during our childhood. Dad had just made a plan for his entire busy week, had written it down, and was sharing it with us out loud to make…
A BIGGER TABLE
I’ve been touched this week by the idea of bigger tables. The idea that we are building, both metaphorically and literally, bigger tables at which we can gather to eat and laugh, to write and do craft projects, to connect…
GOD IS MY CO-AUTHOR
I hit a wall this week. I crashed into an emotional-psychological wall with this thought: “I just can’t do it anymore. I’m totally fried.” Of course, this wasn’t the first wall I’ve encountered; I’ve been hitting them with regularity since…
THIS BETTER BE GOOD
You may have seen some of the artistic collaborations of artist Tom Curtis and his young sons, Dom and Al. Maybe you don’t know their names, but their stuff is all over social media; they’ve got an Instagram account (@thingsihavedrawn);…
SMACKED UPSIDE THE HEAD BY AN ANGEL
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a yard sign supposedly translated from Chinese, with the tranquil and evocative message: “Do Not Disturb: Tiny Grass is Dreaming.” I got a lot of positive feedback on that piece. Thanks, friends! A…
CLOSE-UP
Earlier this week, Travis and I were biking home on a perfect summer evening. We had been out at a downtown brewpub. Our discussion had covered a lot of wild territory, all over the place — politics, the pandemic,…
AS LONG AS IF ONLY
A few weeks ago several of us were waiting on Zoom for the rest of the team to join us for our monthly Board meeting, and the casual conversation was going something like this: “How are you doing?” “Well… I’m…