What does it mean to wait for something we can’t even begin to imagine? 12.07.21 Advent is a church season, like its cousin Lent, that always stands in such stark contrast to the cultural expressions blasting on around it. Its deep-water quiet is an affront to the endless busyness, anxious…

What we can learn when we shift from “fixing” to “witnessing,” 12.02.21 When I was in my early 20s and clinically depressed (although I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time), I worked a predictably depressing job with a predictably depressing commute. …

for Elena, at 10, 07.06.21 She comes to me, wearing her cat pjs and her earnest asking face. Momma, can we go for one last canoe ride before bed, just you and me? Please? Sometimes the look behind the eyes is so urgent it stings: It’s not just the ride…

Nine months in a bubble with an immunocompromised person. 06.07.21 It was the end of August 2020 when we decided to create a bubble with my husband’s aunt and uncle. We were outside on a perfect summer evening, having spent the day on the North Shore of Lake Superior together…

meditation, love poem, 03.21.21 It is not quite Spring — nights still cold, ground still matted and brown, trees still bare, though they wear now the faint scruff of buds, blur of texture against a slick slab of blue sky. Evening comes, gentle, taking its time, and we stand outside…

Ash Wednesday, 02.17.21 “In any instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger. In any instant the bush may flare, your feet may rise, or you may see a bunch of souls in trees.” — Annie Dillard, For The Time Being We are told today to remember, and wisely…

A way to see our choices and the choices of others that calls out grace, 01.25.21 When the pandemic first landed in our awareness, and everything felt like it was careening out of control — because it was! — here’s something I noticed: While, like other contemplatives, I had an…

Liminal dispatch, 11.07.20 In order for pain of any kind to dissipate and transform, it has to be witnessed. Our culture tends to promote the opposite: deny it, push it down, suck it up, pretend it’s not there, project it onto someone else, numb it, drown it out. When someone…

Liminal dispatch, 11.02.20 These past few years have been rugged for lots of people. Yes, even the ones who “won.” I am hard pressed to find folks, of any political stripe, who are measurably happier, less stressed, more joyful, more connected, more magnanimous, less anxious, or more body-mind-spirit healthy than…