- Home is Where the Ache Is I am breaking this horrible blog silence to be a part of Elizabeth’s “Blog Carnival” on Home. If you click here you can read her post on Home, while also sampling the delicious words of a handful of others taking part in this here Carnival. The day was yesterday, the time was 11:05pm Eastern standard, […]
- And I Say Hello I have a tendency of late to move into spaces in which people are awfully transient. International communities in Portugal, graduate programs in California, these homes for me have borders lined with goodbyes. I began this blog three years ago in part to meander through all of the goodbyes and hellos of the hour. “Hello,” […]
- Polaroid I Did Not Take, But Feels Familiar Polaroids are Holga’s charming older sister, I think. This one from J. Heineman’s vaults, of Cursive Buildings.
- Short Stories in Motion [vimeo 3330839] I came across this short film (six minutes) on Vimeo. It made me happy. And now I miss about 100 different people /places, even the ones I haven’t yet met. By Marco Aslan (who belongs to four different nationalities)
- I Remember Bread on Thursdays I distinctly remember this day, in 2006. And I remember writing about it as my first blog post, ever. Tears poured down my face, on both occasions. (This was fitting.) In those days, I often said things like, “my heart hurts.” All the same, I remember when a wise little one wrote me a song/poem on a white […]
- Goodbye, Hello, Uh-Oh I said “goodbye” to the Bordens yesterday in Arusha. They waved me off on my 5-hour shuttle to Nairobi. I cried. And then I napped. I think those two things go well together. I had two hours to kill at the airport so I ordered a veggie burger. A strange sort of curried-Kenyan version of […]
- Well, To Be Honest I can’t get past the strange feeling that I never really left Portugal, but that I just happened to go on a really long vacation. A year long vacation. And I took all my stuff with me. I’ve gone to a few of my old favorite places–the Salamandra with Jasmin, the Indian restaurant with Cristina, […]
- A Great Pregnancy; or, Christmas in July (From my all-time favourite little book, Letters to a Young Poet, letter 6) RomeDecember 23, 1903 My dear Mr. Kappus, I don’t want you to be without a greeting from me when Christmas comes and when you, in the midst of the holiday, are bearing your solitude more heavily than usual… Why don’t you think […]
- A Kind Goodbye Sunday night was my last hurrah at the church. We played CTF 5000 (Capture the Flag insane-o style) and ate too much pizza. And then the kiddos blindsided me with the sweetest surprise: thank you cupcakes. A handful of them stood up in front of the group and said things they’d miss about me, they […]
- Emo and Walking Awkwardly Well, the girls retreat was a raving success, and I laughed harder than I have in quite a long time. Elise was extraordinary with the girls, as expected. It seemed that the Spirit was a busy-one over our weekend. I waved Elise off at the aeroporto as she is flying back to Portugal tonight. Now […]
- Saying Goodbye to Youth Work On June 30th I’m drawing to a close a long stint of youth work. I only recently realized that my last day as youth director at the church stands for something much more significant than a job change. This is a goodbye to an era. I don’t take these things lightly. But I do know […]
- B-sides on Time – Take 3 I recently spent some time visiting a young woman in a hospital bed. She’d gone into labor with her first child and delivered a still-born boy. I was at a loss for words. So was she. I just tried to stand there in the sadness with her and the father, resisting the temptation to leave […]