When I assembled the lighted village for 2020, it was the same but different. No carolers, shoppers, Goodwill band, children building snowmen, or Santa. Even the man waiting on the park bench was absent. All were inside, sheltering in place, hoping to survive the pandemic. Like the three of us. Maggie was sent home in…
We all respond to certain sounds. Down the street from us, the village fire station blasts a siren for emergencies. Like it or not, we hear it loud and clear, as volunteers race to their post. Hardly front-line responders ourselves, our hearts beat with concern, nevertheless. Our neighbors Rob and Beth also stand ready, listening.…
I never knew about bucket lists until a movie came out with that title. Whenever people talk about their lists, traveling is usually involved. Exotic. Adventurous. I thought about that. I've been on a Mexican bus stopped at midnight by armed outlaws in the jungle. When they boarded, passengers shouted "Dos Gringos!" and pointed to…
Some people blow out candles and wish. Some people close their eyes and pray. Some people cross their fingers and hope. I watch everywhere, all the time, for three things. They rise up before me--these tiny miracles--tucked into ordinary settings. Had I been looking the other way, I would have missed them. But I wasn't.…
Several years ago, a young woman asked me the secret to a long marriage. As if I were a Wise Woman with a stone tablet. As if I were a Unicorn surrounded by a Truth and Beauty Rainbow. As if there is a secret. But now after 41 years of marriage, I can offer this.…
To pick up where I ended in my last post, it happened a block from our house. Maggie was walking our dog down the sidewalk. A man in a pickup backed down his driveway without paying any attention. Maggie quickly stepped out of the way to let him pass. Her movement must have alerted him…
When I told my mother we were adopting a baby from China, she said, "Honey, are you sure? People say such mean things." Not that I thought she was wrong, but I had no idea what Maggie would face in Whiteville--two white parents with white friends and relatives, living in white neighborhoods, attending mostly white…
PROLOGUE May begins tomorrow. I hesitated to write a blog post about my Easter event from April. I asked Maggie, hoping she'd say, "Blow it off, Mom." Instead, she replied, "The virus has thrown everyone off. Write it anyway, even if Easter happened weeks ago. If it really bothers you, throw in a reference to…
TV pundits assure us that every hardship--even a pandemic--has a silver lining. Eventually. For now at least, our household has settled in for the long haul because of the coronavirus. I know it's deadly, but every time they show another graphic of it, all I can see are the squishy toys Maggie loved as a…
Face it. Once commercial enterprises latch onto a holiday, no one can live up to the expectations. If you didn't gift your sweetheart with jewelry, you failed. Roses count, as long as it was a dozen. A teddy bear bigger than your sofa? You're kidding yourself. Over 40 years ago, Cliff and I celebrated our…
