Now Serving: Fruit Salad

Vaite Zests a Lemon While Cadence and a Nameless Dinosaur Observe. Independence Day, 2012. Careful Preparations My niece Vaite offered to make fruit salad when our pastor and his family came for brunch during her visit. I was relieved: my arthritic hands fatigue before much peeling and chopping is done, these days, and I could trust […]


Flyaway Heroine

Cadence and Elaine. Wife. Mom. Patriot. My daughter Elaine and our grandson Sawyer are flying home to Hawaii today. They’ve been visiting in California for a month now. The family arrived in a single piece: Elaine, her husband Rob, who’s a chief in the U.S. Navy, older son Cadence, and toddler Sawyer. Rob flew back […]


Gratitude Avalanche

Girl Selling an Apple to a Marine on a Train. Seoul. 1954. Photo by Rod Seiler.* Buried in Gifts At my physical therapy appointment, I chatted with Jun, a young man who works there, as he supervised my execution of a series of back-strengthening exercises. “Where are you from, Jun?” “Korea.” “My dad was there.” […]


Gratitude Avalanche

Girl Selling an Apple to a Marine on a Train. Seoul. 1954. Photo by Rod Seiler.* Buried in Gifts At my physical therapy appointment, I chatted with Jun, a young man who works there, as he supervised my execution of a series of back-strengthening exercises. “Where are you from, Jun?” “Korea.” “My dad was there.” […]


The Dirty Job of Sacrifice, Mom-Style

Still Life with Aromatic Ointment. October, 2011. The Things Done for Love All my life I’ve used my bare hands to apply mentholated ointment, because that’s how my mom applied it when I was sick as a little girl. Recently I’ve had bronchitis and the ointment has been my friend. Vicks sorely strained our friendship one evening. I’d […]