technology & inner transformation
“All Zoomed out.” It’s a phrase I hear often lately. It describes the way a person feels after hours or days of Zoom meetings, fixated… Read More »technology & inner transformation
“All Zoomed out.” It’s a phrase I hear often lately. It describes the way a person feels after hours or days of Zoom meetings, fixated… Read More »technology & inner transformation
A reflection on Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem: This press of time We set the pace. But this press of time — take it as a… Read More »touch the holy
Who are you? How is it you live within me and I within you, and still I am flummoxed by you? My heart’s cry is… Read More »seashore prayer
The light changes in the corner. A bright rectangle is cast from the window on the other side of the room. Morning air is cool… Read More »changing light
I dream that the art teacher is unexpectedly leaving the school where we’ve taught. I’m not teaching there any longer, but I’m there when she… Read More »those ain’t my shirts
When I was a child, I got into a bicycle accident: jaw broken in three places. A couple years later, when I tried riding again,… Read More »hands off
Today the sky is an apt metaphor. There is plenty of light to see, but clouds have covered over the blue. I look up and… Read More »clouds and wind
Gracious God, please tell me again that I do not have to be Great. Tell me that breathing my way through the day is a… Read More »Monday morning prayer
Each moment is a gift. Sometimes it’s a broad-daylight, tromping-through-the-woods, birds-singing, dog-cavorting, husband’s-hand-in-mine sort of gift. Other times the moment doesn’t look like a gift… Read More »wrapped
Usually David takes Kenneth (our beloved little Prius-C) in for tune-ups, but on December 19th I made the drive to Peabody. Perhaps hearts open a little… Read More »divine appointments & a tire rotation
Every day the counters are dirtied. Every night the bed is unmade. In dark seasons I can’t keep up, and I become Sisyphus, pushing the… Read More »the marvelous mundane – part one
I woke very early and eased my body out of bed. The attic floorboards creaked beneath my careful feet. David slept soundly in the imperfect silence. The darkness of morning usually… Read More »candle or no candle
For the third morning I wake very early. The silence of Rowley is thick and soft as a blanket. Today I do not even try… Read More »sublime chess game
I woke with a dozen tasks on my radar: curtains to hang, the office to organize, photo enlargements to order. We host our family next weekend,… Read More »the willow and me
Moving into David’s parents’ house was a no-brainer. We’d save on rent, have an easy commute to River Valley (where we’re both happily teaching now), and do Mark and… Read More »new home
The day I heard of Kim’s passing, I rode my bike to the beach and let the wind chill the tears on my cheeks. The… Read More »the kindness of Kim
The blue jay spread wide his wings and restored me to myself. The spare room is too cold for yoga, and the cat had spent the night… Read More »window
On the last day of 2014, I repotted our peace lily. Its leaves had been turning brown, one by one, despite my careful placement (indirect sunlight,… Read More »repotted and it feels so good
September turns my heart to school. Not just the school where I teach now, but all the schools I’ve taught in and all the schools… Read More »back-to-transformation
One year ago, on a warm July morning, I woke up incredibly early to walk the beach. A few hours later I arrived in Rowley, Massachusetts, where… Read More »first year
Inconvenience is an invitation into the present moment. Some days I need to be invited repeatedly. The first time I took the laundry into the elevator on… Read More »the inconvenient day
I have an hour till David comes home with our niece and nephew. An hour to clean up from lunch and water the plants and type the emails… Read More »another (brief) lesson in surrender
Sometimes events you’ve been waiting for happen all at once. Thursday, May 15th was a day of great fruition. Early in the morning I… Read More »fruition
The luminous Catherine Hawkins was one of my husband David’s childhood friends. Catherine and I became close in the spring of 2012, when I sweet-talked… Read More »my hands are dying
Okay already. I’m going to write about meditation. The subject gobbles up a lot of my head-space lately, but I haven’t blogged about it for… Read More »the meditation assignment
When I get home from the airport, I’m hungry. I make a piece of toast and slather it with coconut oil, the way Mama does… Read More »on mothers, hungers, and toast
When you find your wedding dress, you want to feel beautiful. You want Yes to bubble up from the depths of your being. You want to… Read More »wedding dresses and windows
I cracked the car’s bumper last week. I was pulling out of an unusual spot in our parking garage and hit a railing. The unappetizing… Read More »meditations on a dented sedan
We play dozens of games when we get together with Joy and the kids. We play Mario in our jammies; we pull out cribbage once… Read More »in the game
High time I fess up: my plan for the year failed. I came here with the dream of investing time in my writing: submitting essays,… Read More »conditions for joy
The paperwhites are in full bloom the morning I learn that Grandma has died. Before I turn on my phone and see the message, I… Read More »from bulb to blossom
This morning I swung by Walgreens to pick up some photos I ordered. Once they’re in their frames and wrapped, our Christmas gifts will officially… Read More »temporary sojourner
The roads were icy Sunday morning. The car fishtailed a few times on the drive to church, so I developed a gentle rhythm. First gear… Read More »life, death, and faulty brake calipers
Thanksgiving morning. We wake to a text from Mom, who misses me. Next comes toast in the hotel lobby with David and his dad Mark.… Read More »Thanksgiving morning
Ah, not to be cut off, not through the slightest partition shut out from the law of the stars. The inner — what is it?… Read More »the winds of homecoming
My friend Ralph Eckhardt sent this picture the other day. He wrote, “I had just been thinking about your latest Breathe Deep and praying for… Read More »tree roots and laundry
It’s a rainy morning in Wichita. Most of the colored leaves in the courtyard below our apartment still cling to their branches. The flags whip… Read More »Wichitastic
Waking up in the morning feels like the hardest thing I’ve ever done; maybe the hardest thing anybody has ever done. I might always feel… Read More »groundlessness and tea
It started July 26th at 11:30 p.m. on I-40, 3.1 miles from our exit in Brownsville, Tennessee. We were planning what we’d do when we… Read More »while waiting
So I’ve been teaching this yoga class. My beloved friend Jennie bequeathed it to me shortly after I met her, which was shortly after we… Read More »Hafiz, hula, and surrender
Ben, Joy, Ally and Jack will be here in less than three hours, but I’m sitting down in my untidy bedroom to write a blog… Read More »just so
I haven’t skinned my knee in years, so when I stumbled over the extra-high curb at Mark and Cheryl’s three weeks ago, I knew it… Read More »skinned knees, fresh cantaloupe, Basic Principles
Dear Quentin, Happy August! I miss your songs and stories. Remember how we used to find luminous, common things on the playground at recess? I… Read More »dear Quentin
A thousand years ago*, in the month of June, Mom came up for my bridal shower. The night she arrived, we sat on my bed… Read More »Wow! A secret message from your teeth!
I woke early Sunday morning, wearied by the ludicrous night visions only a bride-to-be must endure. A shower rinsed off the outermost layer of fretfulness.… Read More »the Sun and the shower
Blessed be the first bite of birthday cake. Hallowed be that moment, long before the gears of memory began to turn, when I learned that… Read More »in praise of all things sweet
On my walk to the beach I snap pictures of other people’s yards. Winter and spring coexist right now, and for all my talk… Read More »the momentous in-between
After the show, bouquets took over the apartment, preening above my life’s neglected minutia. Delphinium trumpeted above the half-written birthday cards and half-read letters; gerbera… Read More »short trip to the compost bucket
When I signed on to play Maria in The Sound of Music, the decision was a no-brainer. The iconic musical has been dear to my… Read More »how do you solve a problem like yourself?
Driving to Suzanne’s for Book Club took forty-five minutes longer than it should have. I suppose rush hour is as good a time as any… Read More »books were never the point