Twelve years ago, I moved to Chicago, a city of nearly 3 million people. I came to Chicago from a tiny rural town in Wisconsin with a population of only about 5,000 by way of a seven-year stay in Madison, Wisconsin, which is home to approximately a quarter million people.…
Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a resurrected writing project – a task that is likely to continue for several months to come. Whenever I delve into a task as daunting as this one, I look to various sources of creative inspiration and motivation. I read…
Bird by bird. This is the advice given by Anne Lamott, one of my absolute favorite writers, in her book of the same name. She tells the story of her brother, struggling to finish a school report on birds. He was surrounded by papers and chaos, tears brimming in his…
The house is still and quiet. The only sounds are the low gurgle of the fish tank filter and my fingers tapping on the computer keys. The soft light of morning is just creeping over the pine trees out my back window and the streets are blanketed in just enough…
Author’s Note: This post is part of a cooperative effort of Unitarian Universalist writers to commemorate the annual Thirty Days of Love campaign, which is part of the Standing on the Side of Love initiative – a community of people speaking out against oppression and uniting in the common belief…
When my kids were babies, I always hated when well-intentioned veteran parents would remind me to Enjoy it! It goes so fast! No, I wanted to say, it absolutely does NOT go fast. In fact, there were times that felt like I was living in a time warp. A…