Magical Memoir Moments
A Role Model Shows Up in the Inbox: Plus, A Book Giveaway
All my life I have looked ahead to someone older to help show me the path ahead. Role models, we sometimes call these people. I started early, looking up to my neighbor Shirley Clark. She was a member of the safety patrol. I became a member also. Last week someone who just might qualify as…
From This Valley They Say We Are Going: Another Turning Point
A few days ago I wrote about the long, cold winter our family has endured. This week new life has erupted. Daffodils are budding, and the early ones are dancing in the breeze. This beautiful passage from the second chapter of the Song of Solomon speaks for us: “Arise, my love, my fair…
The Crucible of Winter: What Has It Taught You?
“Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.” — Katherine May I have been through a very painful winter. Have you too? Today, turning the calendar page today to March 1 felt liberating. Then a walk in balmy, windy, air, listening to birds, looking for crocuses and pansies, admiring the…
What Keeps Me Standing: The Wisdom of Black Grandmothers
In the midst of both a pandemic and an anti-racist social justice movement in our country, I find myself, as a white person, a mother, grandmother, and now a caregiver, searching for the wisdom of black grandmothers. I believe black women may be the most resilient people in the world and that their strength gives…
The Means of Saving Us: One Good, Sacred, Memory
We live in partisan times in America. Depending on where we stand politically, we see different problems, but everyone seems to agree we have problems. Serious problems. We yearn for peace. Yet peace is not possible without “liberty and justice for all.” Or, to use the framework that John Paul Lederach teaches, derived from Psalm…
In Our Dark Night: Mother Julian’s Words and a Grandson’s Drawing
It’s hard to write tonight. The news is so distressing. George Floyd’s tragic death is the tip of the spear. We should all be coming together to fight the Corona virus — and the other viruses of injustice, racism, and inequality. We need wise leaders. We need change. Will it happen? Despair comes more easily…
Care Packages for Grandchildren: Creativity While Quarantined
What’s a Grandma to do? When hugs are forbidden? Stores are closed? And she’s told “elders” like her must stay home? She asks her friends on Facebook, of course. “What can I do to stay connected when all I have are things around the house?” I asked. You wouldn’t believe how many GREAT ideas other…
A Broken-Winged Bird: Life in the Time of the Coronavirus
All winter long I gazed sorrowfully at the wooden hummingbird that hung from the window ledge. The left wing was missing! Often, looking at the sad sight, I recalled the famous Langston Hughes poem, “Dreams:” Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams…
My Dear God: How I Feel About Writing Another Book
Writing books is hard work. After writing, revising, publishing, and touring with a memoir, 2011-2014, I said I didn’t think I wanted to write another book. The only exception would be if I felt called again. When my friend Marilyn McEntyre asked if I would join her and others on a panel discussion at the…
“Have a Good Time with Your Friends:” A Granddaughter Milestone on the Brink
She’s two and a half and heading full speed toward three years old. She’s on the brink of everything. Just before Christmas, she helped put up lights and pine garland on her porch. She couldn’t stop saying her favorite new word: “energy!” By the time she arrived at our house for the Christmas holiday, Lydia…