I heard a poem yesterday … or I should say, a part of a poem. I am not sure who the author of the poem was. I am not even sure I have the phrase right. Nonetheless, I have been captured by its truth, this little, potentially misquoted, phrase: "Lord, most of what I love […]

I have been thinking a lot about time lately. How slow time can crawl in some circumstances---waiting in line, listening to a boring concert or speech, holding one's breath awaiting a test result. How quickly time can fly in other circumstances---coffee with a great friend, looking at your adult kids' faces and wondering how they […]

"To me, one of the most troubling ways social media has been used in recent years is to foment waves of hysteria and fear, both by news media and by users themselves. Whipped into a permanent state of frenzy, people create and subject themselves to news cycles, complaining of anxiety at the same time they […]

I am revisiting Jenny Odell's fascinating book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Originally published in 2019, her work feels more urgent today than it did a mere six years ago. The pace of life--of change, of disruption, of technology--continues to accelerate. Most everyone I talk with is not okay. At all. I […]

It is far too easy, when life is dark, to turn to facts and non-facts, arguments and counterarguments, all the words and torrents of opinion. We look to these things to help us make sense of the nonsensical, the absurd, the impossible to believe. But I find, when life is dark, poetry often helps more […]

Well before dawn this morning, a little bird struck up a song outside an open window above our bed. She sang her heart out. Her chorus was complex: chirps and warbles and runs. A veritable symphony of joy, filled with contagious energy and beauty. She sang her heart out. The darkness did not stop her. […]