I've often said that my church is The Church of HEB. H.E.B is the main grocery store where I live in Texas, and the grocery store is our unity, where we all come together: old, young, rich, poor; construction workers and bankers; teenagers looking for a…
Once a month I drive fifteen miles to a church hall in a neighboring town, where kind volunteers stack the tables with boxes of jigsaw puzzles. For thirty minutes, people swap puzzles and stories. It's free and regulars know to bring a bag: we're encouraged to…
When people ask me what I do, I tell them I'm a writer. The next question is often about what I write. For many years - knee high in the thick of mothering four children - I chuckled and said, "A lot of grocery and shopping lists.…
Today's poem is for my young friend Liam. Liam is 19, in his first year of community college, a kindred spirit that I befriended at my neighborhood gym. It's not a traditional gym - it's the rec center of a private high school that…
This summer brought an unusual gift: a month long, grueling spell of vertigo, when I couldn't close my eyes or sleep because of the intensity of the dizziness, whose severity, peace and blessings be upon it, sent me to a specialist, seeking relief and understanding. A few days…
Many of you know I've had a journey through illness these past few years, since I became ill with my first round of covid in early March of 2020. Writing that brings wonder - was it really 4 1/2 years ago? There is much I can say…
I spend a lot of time at the pharmacy these days. On any given day, I take 6-7 prescriptions - white, yellow, orange, green, and pink pills that bring nourishment, relief, and support to my sweet sweet body. Another day, I will tell you love stories about the pharmacists, how…
A few years go I heard a saying from Sufi teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan that continues to teach me - “Money, what do you like most? Changing hands.” Those words came to mind as I found myself collecting the mail one evening, sifting through the envelopes. Most were from charities,…