Explosions sounded, fireworks blasted, hearts were gladened, no one expecting what the coming year might bring. As usual, pens jotted lists of resolutions, hearts imagined restored finances or relations, and minds conjured a year that would be better than the one we left. Yet, as the clock ticked, as the ball dropped, as the world turned […]
His heart wasn’t broken today… It hit me, like a ton of bricks. His heart made by connecting two thumbs, and bridging his fingers together, looked back at me there on his bus. I almost couldn’t believe it. Some might say it’s a small thing, silly or insignificant. But to me, it’s monumental… Something I’ll remember […]
We just talked about it again, trudging through the Christmas tree farm the other day. Our older two, two decades and more, a boyfriend, my ten and a five-year-old, in toe. Each year, we bring someone different. Is that because they need to know the story too? It was year two of marriage. I remember it […]
Every Christmas, I passed the red flag with the vertical blue and white cross. I’d find my mom in the kitchen, spending hours on her iron press, making Krum Kaka, for neighbors, relatives, friends. I never learned how to make Krum Kaka, alongside her. Though I saw the Norwegian prayer next to the sink each morning, […]
Country life was foreign to us. We had come from Seattle; tall buildings, cement sidewalks, everything from derelicts to business people passing us by, daily. That first winter on our property, a blizzard came. The snow covered the ground for weeks. When it melted, we realized we lost a few trees, while other branches hung lifeless. […]
I remember when she picked out the rock. Smooth surfaces, each imprinted with words on them, like, “faith”, “hope”, and “love”. She was a child we cared for, loved and walked with while testifying. It was hard. She needed encouragement. The prosecuting attorney asked her to pick something small to cling to as she sat as […]