Paul Christensen: The Waiting Game
I sometimes think of myself as Jody Tiflin, the boy from John Steinbeck’s story who longed to have his mare Nellie deliver a foal, the red pony, only to discover … Continue reading
Elizabeth Jacobson: Welcome
When I get to the hospital I see that someone has sent my grandmother a big bouquet of pink roses and the card reads: Welcome. Nana laughs and sticks the … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: The Vernal Equinox
I found three tiny crocus sprouts in the garden today. They were as innocent as a boy’s first pubic hair, tentative and shy, but determined to flow with time toward … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Come Play in the Milky Night
At the IHOP in Winchester one night, we were paying for our dinner when the young woman behind the cash register noticed that my young son was looking at something … Continue reading
Frida Berrigan: Parenting the Climate-Change Generation
Young people across the world are striking to draw attention to the ravages of climate change. They are demanding — with their bodies and their voices — that the catastrophe each of them will inherit be a priority for the grown-ups around them.
Rebecca Gordon: From Mowing the Grass to Cutting the Flesh
If we were sometimes silly, we were also wise enough to know that understanding and taking control of our bodies was a first step to taking control of our lives.
Gerald Fleming: About Stone
If you are not honest, stone will make you honest. Lifting it, breaking it, fitting it. The work is mostly quiet—the main sound the sound of stone against stone. The work is close to the ground.
Anne Lamott: Notes on Hope
I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.
Leah Penniman: By Reconnecting With Soil, We Heal the Planet and Ourselves
Enslavement and sharecropping cannot erase thousands of years of Black people’s sacred relationship with the land.
Jose Padua: Home Sorrow and the Million Ways We Make It Through the World
That weekend was one of those that reminded us of what we love about living in the northern Shenandoah Valley—namely, events like the performance in Castleton, Virginia, some twenty-five miles … Continue reading
Bailey Williams: Oscar Grant Was Shot by Police 10 Years Ago. Now His Family Is Helping Others to Heal
The United States has the highest number of police killings than any other industrialized country. In 2018, nearly 1,000 people were killed by police, according to The Washington Post. Of those killed, 38 were unarmed.
Ruth Conniff: Our Dangerous Impulse to Demonize the Other Side
We need to check our impulse to see young white men as evil.
Marco North: The Street of Flowers
Two weeks ago, I spied those splotches of blood against the white concrete, the roses scattered across the sidewalk. I imagined it was a fist fight or a knifing at … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: January’s Two Faces
Nothing can make the soul shiver more than to look upon those tree-covered slopes with their icy diamonds shimmering on their skin. They are there to remind you that your mortality means nothing to them. They stand for the severity of time, the rules of the universe that have nothing to do with our petty lives.
