21Nov 23, 2012
Every day is a feast day, really–the table prepared and gilded, platters piled high, the celebration abundant. All our giving thanks, all our gathering at table, begins with grace. So too, the meal we celebrate as first. And this the history shared with my children as they dip their forks in richness (I wonder, do you […]
22Nov 16, 2012
Clouds, faintest gray, blanket the sky thick, like fleece smoothed with an efficient hand. From the window, I glimpse fiery trees, tall in the brisk wind, the first drops of rain gathering on their leaves like gem stones. And I give thanks for the trees on fire but not burning, the reminder of warmth against an icy […]
23Nov 25, 2011
The last year I shopped Black Friday, Mom and I sat in a parking lot for two and a half hours, gridlocked, trying to leave. Our bargains, over which we’d shared exhilarated gloating, sat in their bags, looking less impressive as the minutes passed. All in all, the madness just didn’t seem worth the money we’d saved. […]
24Nov 24, 2011
Gratitude is not the festive color of a day, but the shape of a life redeemed. My deepest wish is that Thanksgiving finds you crowded warm around a table, surrounded by joy. I hope laughter makes you giddy, love satisfies you way down deep, and memory soothes like a hand gently resting against your back. […]
25Nov 11, 2011
You say grace before meals./All right. / But I say grace before the play and the opera, /And grace before the concert and the pantomime, /And grace before I open a book, /And grace before sketching, painting,/ Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing,/And grace before I dip the pen in the ink (~G.K. Chesterson, as […]
26Aug 26, 2011
It’s funny how one word can mean such different things. In the afternoons, Adam learns to clean the house, my hand gesturing to a trash can he’s to empty or resting over his own, showing him the right way to hold a can of Scrubbing Bubbles. Right now, we focus on three jobs—emptying trash cans, […]