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Before Becoming
“I don’t know how you can remain so unaffected.” Dripping with judgment and delivered with acrid tone, her words had me on my heels. Some childlike part of me shrunk in shame while another part felt the sting of indignation in recognizing she had not asked a single question to understand my interior landscape. Once…
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Seeing Red
I am heartbroken…. I have called Minnesota “home” my entire life. And there is something remarkably strange about knowing your life is occurring in a place and time that will one day be depicted within history books. Some days I wake up to a silence that holds all the promise and possibility of normalcy, and…
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Return to Your Senses
Nothing would be the same after that day…nor could I understand all the ways that was true. I was in a deep sleep when the phone trilled. Certain I had once again overslept; my nervous system launched its menagerie of physical sensations that expressed its state of panic as my mind quickly composed another version…
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Rapt
My encounters with eagles have historically been…well, complicated. Seeing one has always felt magical. But my earlier encounters often came with baggage that made them equally distressing. I grew up at a time when bald eagles were on the endangered species list. To see one was a rare experience. And it was precisely this fact…
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“The Impossible Dream”
Do you want to know a fun fact? I have aphantasia. Isn’t that a delightful word? What it means is I have no ability to conjure a mental image. If someone says, “Close your eyes and picture an apple.” I’ve got nothing but black screen behind my eyes. When reading, people without aphantasia describe seeing…
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Daily Walking Ever Closer to We
I don’t often discuss spirituality, but I almost always want to. There are a lot of topics I can’t make meaningful contributions towards, and while I am not convinced I have much to add in the realm of spirituality, I am intensely drawn to it. It activates a curiosity in me that at times feels…
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Silent: Listen by Another Name
I had no way of knowing what awaited us. Unwittingly, with our recent residential move, we traded in a constancy of sound for a sentinel of silence. During our first few days in the new house, I often found myself passing a whole hour within its void. The presence of absence felt pervasive, and my…
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Home and Away
It was just before 5am and the natural light outside was barely enough for my eyes to train in on the upper right corner of our entryway soffit. I opened the front door about three and a half inches and cast a wary look upon the slumbering waspitality suite that had been built so skillfully…
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Deferred Maintenance
Three months ago, while on a road trip, the words Deferred Maintenance dropped into my awareness and pressed me with urgency. I’ve gotten familiar with the way my sources of inspiration arrive. Like a boa constrictor, the words grab hold of my attention and start winding their way around my consciousness. As they do, I…
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Dull Edges and Action
Armed with a carload of guns and a list of addresses for people who held differing views, he decided to resolve his internal discomfort by driving from address to address and pulling a trigger. It’s hard to understand how a human heart and mind can arrive at this kind of decision, let alone maintain an…
