I jerked awake, heart pounding. Men’s voices came from the deep darkness outside my window. My husband gone that night, I mentally ran through my options. A call to the sheriff would be routed to a city 30 minutes away. I didn't own a weapon outside of a softball bat. Our house backed up to … Continue reading Climb the Hill
I was waiting for a better version of me. Thinner, more accomplished, minus the hundred tiny shards of awkwardness crowding my chest every time I entered a room. I was waiting for her for half my life, but she never arrived. She wasn't real, after all, but a whisper of longing and sometimes harsh expectations, … Continue reading Who I Was Waiting For
I'm coming up on my third year of wearing hearing aids. Yes, I'm a bit young for this. Also yes, I should have done it many years ago. My father, bless him, not only left me his extraordinarily large feet, but also the family trait of hearing loss. (Thankfully, he left his balding head to … Continue reading What We Haven’t Heard
There's something holy about sunsets. Long after it sets, the sun’s light lingers in the lavender clouds drifting slowly over me as I stand in my front yard, small against the majesty. Each evening brings the chance to pause; to consider the art and Artist speaking in silent extravagance. We visited Italy last year, and … Continue reading Written in the Clouds
We found it, unexpectedly, in a back alley of Riga, Latvia’s Old Town. “Sinagoga”, the plaque read, and I peered through the gate to spy a Star of David over the door. The building had been restored after the ravages of the Holocaust followed by the persecution of Soviet rule. Now security cameras followed me … Continue reading In the Alley
The time has finally come. With the rapid growth and development of artificial intelligence, we can now officially say that it's impossible to tell what’s real. Everything can now be faked in such a way that the savviest among us can no longer tell the difference between reality and AI. Even our most trusted news … Continue reading When We Can’t Tell What’s Real
It was Tall Timber Days in our town here in the Minnesota northwoods, and we had a parade. For two miles, from the fairgrounds and through the old downtown, floats and fire engines, vintage cars and civic groups walked and marched and danced and drove past sidewalks lined with old people in chairs and younger … Continue reading Ben Carried the Banner
Kansas Carry on, the hard rock band sang from the school bus’s tinny AM station as it wound it's way up and down the mountain to my high school. I rested my head against the cool glass, grasping at those words of encouragement between electric guitar riffs. Tenth grade was a time of tension. My … Continue reading Carry On
I’ve visited a lot of different churches over the years. A few have required a head scarf. Some, something nicer than jeans. Most don’t care. Mine was the generation to break traditional church dress codes, following on the heels of the hippies before us. It felt daring. Rebellious, even. Like we were laying aside the … Continue reading What To Wear
We built a house. We found a beautiful lot filled with maple and birch with a perfect rise in the center. For two years we visited the spot, soaking in its beauty and dreaming of the day we could build, and now we have a home here. I didn’t realize, when we first walked the … Continue reading A Time to Build
A View of the Lake 