Welcome to my amazing new website design! I am so grateful to the incomparable Kimberly Cho of Half Cup Studio for creating it. The logo and the look of the site feel so resonant for me, giving me a boost, like a good mantra or mission statement does. A felt sense of clarity about what I’m about as …
Exciting News! A draft version of the first chapter of my novel, Rooting for Time, just won an honorable mention in the Chicago Writers’ Association First Chapter Contest! I will be reading aloud from that first chapter tomorrow night, 12.2.2022, at the Driftless Writing Center‘s Online Open Mic. Together, these two things feel like a …
I. Slow, steady flame warm golden glow softening honey-scented beeswax. Dripping oozing pooling hardening. Attaching carved metal votive holder to the wood of the altar. Claiming the territory, staking the past configuration to the next. Perhaps awaiting conflagration. II. Is that what’s coming? Conflagration? Certainly in the dry forests of the Pacific Northwest. Then there’s …
At a writing retreat with Miriam Hall last week, this flowed out during a 15-minute free-write, in response to something another participant had read aloud. She wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. She wrote truth and she wrote fiction, analysis and speculation, memoir and imagination, dreams and information. …
Those of you who know me well know I grew up believing I couldn’t sing. In general, as a child I was encouraged to focus on areas where I could excel. If you couldn’t do something spectacularly well, why bother trying? After all, talent was considered inborn. You either had a nice voice, or you …
Bat Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvah, B-Mitzvah, Re-Mitzvah: On Reclaiming Singing and Faith Read More »
Vaccine hesitancy is a hot topic lately. I’ve been listening to people vent about how the willfully unvaccinated are making ill-informed decisions that are putting themselves and others at risk. While I agree, I have been reflecting on why I’m not getting angry about it. Is it just that I’m slow to anger in general? …
If I were (like) you: Some reflections on vaccine hesitancy Read More »
At Sarah’s favorite grocery store for her weekly shopping trip on Sunday, I’d decided to mostly focus on her and her list. Her favorite store. Her diet. Her need for both help, and sovereignty. Yet the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration loomed, since a somewhat-unexpected trip to see my dad had taken a bite out of my …
Dear Senator Sinema, I’ve admired you since we worked together at the Center for Progressive Leadership in Milwaukee in 2011-13. I was a faculty coach, and you were one of our most brilliant and inspiring trainers. When I asked you what you would say to people who don’t want to participate in electoral politics because …
Wow. I’m surprised to find it’s been over seven months since I wrote a blog post!! Apologies—to my readers, to myself, and maybe, to my blog. Last week I attended a 6-day in-person writing retreat with my teacher, Miriam Hall of Herspiral Contemplative Arts. At these retreats, we meditate, write in response to prompts, share …
Last night my contemplative writing teacher Miriam Hall gave us a prompt about what might be going smoothly in our lives, in the midst of roughness. Here’s what I wrote, edited just slightly for clarity: Is anything going smoothly? Writing. Amazingly enough. Regular writing dates. Regular rhythm. Rhythmic writing. The (almost) daily morning pages. Almost …
