There and Back Again: Holy, Holy, Holy

Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows. Chicago. 2009. Sunday Flooding Sunday in church I cried. It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last, I don’t think. But this past Sunday, as our congregation sang “Holy, Holy, Holy,” tears rolled down my face as if I were chopping onions. Or grieving. I was […]


Birthday Presence

Sawyer, Big Brother Cadence, Mommy Elaine. Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego. November 11, 2010 The Next Best Thing to Being There During a Skype session with my daughter Elaine and her family, I asked Cadence, who had just turned five, if he had fun on his birthday. “I did,” he said. “But Lala! Why weren’t […]


Birthday Presence

Sawyer, Big Brother Cadence, Mommy Elaine. Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego. November 11, 2010 The Next Best Thing to Being There During a Skype session with my daughter Elaine and her family, I asked Cadence, who had just turned five, if he had fun on his birthday. “I did,” he said. “But Lala! Why weren’t […]


Birthday Presence

Sawyer, Big Brother Cadence, Mommy Elaine. Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego. November 11, 2010 The Next Best Thing to Being There During a Skype session with my daughter Elaine and her family, I asked Cadence, who had just turned five, if he had fun on his birthday. “I did,” he said. “But Lala! Why weren’t […]


Are We There Yet?

Ayden and Rich at the Helm of Tohora Iti. Dana Point Harbor. June, 2009. Passage Making I was driving to my office the other day, a trip I’ve made five days a week for five years now. The route is familiar; if not for the occasional stray steer in the road at the crest of […]