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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…
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Playing Catch
Like a pop foul ball that no one tried to catch, his words arced and landed with a quiet thump between them. After a long weekend of working an art show attended by defended and disengaged art viewers, the arrival of an eager and unlikely inquiry felt like medicine for Ken’s beleaguered creative spirit. “What…
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Tripping the Lights… FANTASTIC
My husband and I arrived early to the concert hall and had only settled into our thoughtfully selected barstools for about 15 minutes before her laughter sliced the air with its mocking tone. With a nervous system too highly calibrated for such sounds, I remember my shoulders shooting up and my neck pulling downward as…
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Surface Tension
She vigorously moved the whisk with overt confidence, agitating the mixture as she explained, “I want to bring out all those beautiful, unctuous qualities.” Oooooo, unctuous, what an interesting sounding word, what exactly does it mean? I have always loved learning new words. And for as long as I can remember, I have read with…
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Unspoken Loss
I remember the day well. It began with the smell of worms. I’m not actually sure if worms have a smell, but my 7-year-old mind was convinced they did. I suspect the fact that boys were gleefully harvesting their sickly pinkish-brown bodies and slinging them at us girls had something to do with that association.…
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Mine, Yours, Ours: What Resides Between Us?
Light filtered through the stain glass windows creating tall pillars of color on the adjacent wall and a kaleidoscopic pattern across her head. For most of our time together, she sat among us with her eyes cast downward. With magician like skill, her hands repeatedly swapped a concealed object between them while her shoulders remained…
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Where I Meet Us
Do you know what a mobius strip is? Four months ago, while reading a book written by Parker Palmer, I was introduced to the concept. And while I do not feel qualified to speak about a geometric form discovered by a German mathematician; I recently had an experience that felt like traveling a mobius strip. …
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Brittle…Break…Through
I woke up at 3:32, one minute earlier than the more charmed 3:33 that I often awaken to. Despite the fleeting distraction of wishing the clock presented a more favored set of numbers, I was met by the pressing presence of a word ricocheting through my consciousness. Hushed, but urgent, the word “BRITTLE” rang through…
