Talking to Myself

Nine months ago, my husband and I sold our beloved little Craftsman in our favorite Seattle neighborhood and moved to the suburbs. We needed to move—six people, four of them growing rapidly, in a two-bedroom house was becoming untenable. No, it was already untenable....

pantoum for a rainy day

outside, a crow climbs the steep angle of the neighbor’s roof rain drips from the fig tree, branches bare and barren inside, heat rattles the registers boys squeal in delighted play on the blue carpet rain drips from the fig tree, branches bare and barren on my lap, a...

Hymn of Grateful Praise

For the beauty of the earth… For the glory of the skies… For the love which from our birth… Over and around us lies… Lord of all to Thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. –Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1864 According to Robert Morgan,...

God’s Free Gifts

Wiser it were to welcome and make ours Whatever of good, though small, the Present brings— Kind greetings, sunshine, song of birds, and flowers, With a child’s pure delight in little things. —R.C. Trench Into all our lives, in many simple, familiar, homely ways,...

The Language of Prayer

My twins are napping, my oldest is at the pool, swimming with a friend, and my daughter and I are sharing a rare moment of just-the-two-of-us time. I make tea, while she sets out teacups and saucers, bread and jam. When the tea has steeped, I pour it into our cups,...