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September 2017

September 27, 2017

My Kite Boy

This post originally appeared at Good Letters on June 5, 2012. I woke at one...

July 2017

July 25, 2017

As Petals Fall

“Why are you in the dirt?” he asked, trundling to where I crouched. “I’m pulling...

July 19, 2017

Summer’s Heartbeat

On some summer nights, it seems the world is brighter, more visible in a quiet...

July 11, 2017

The Case For Charlie Gard

Charlie Gard, the English child you see here, will likely die—indeed, by the time this...

February 2017

February 16, 2017

Epiphany in the Memory Unit

By Cameron Dezen Hammon. The priest’s wife handed me her half full can of beer....

January 2017

January 09, 2017

Hea i ka Haku

By Marlene Muller On day two we fired the harpist. “The music is really very...

June 2016

June 29, 2016

The Dragon and the Yahrzeit Candle: On Forgetting and Remembering, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. I dive into the pool. My body remembers water. My body remembers...

May 2015

May 15, 2015

Go Ahead and Have the Damn Children!

I was working from home a few days ago, on a day when both of...

May 06, 2015

My Rainbow Connection, Disconnected

By Chad Thomas Johnston It was a Saturday night and my wife, Becki, wanted to...

May 05, 2015

When We Die

A text from a friend: “What do you believe happens when we die?” She’d recently...

April 2015

April 24, 2015

The Soul of the Law

At the beginning of the old Norton Anthology of English Literature (4th Ed.) appeared this...

February 2015

February 20, 2015

Back to the Drawing Board

To say I can't draw myself out of a cardboard box is to assume I...

November 2014

November 19, 2014

Trouble Called Again Last Night

Trouble called again last Thursday night. The number illuminated in the landline phone's small window....

March 2013

March 27, 2013

How to Visit a Grave

Guest Post By Shannon Huffman Polson 1. Drive down unmarked road in rental car to...

March 04, 2013

The Day My Parents Were Raptured

In the spring of 2002, my sister Alyssa and I left college behind for a...

February 2013

February 07, 2013

Becoming Both Daughter and Mother

Women are strong, strong, terribly strong. We don’t know how strong we are until we...

January 2013

January 06, 2013

The Anniversary of My Father’s Death

“After the first exile, there is no other.” —Rosellen Brown, The Autobiography of My Mother,...

November 2012

November 30, 2012

The Cost of Writing the Truth

I remember my mother used to go to bed for the day. The blackness of...

November 01, 2012

The Scatological Opportunist

Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old...

October 2012

October 14, 2012

Mending Our Mother-Daughter Story

I finally saw Brave this past weekend, and I can definitely say that I had...

October 11, 2012

Blessed Are the Tentmakers

For my daughter, Evangeline Sofia, who celebrated her first birthday on the second day of...

September 2012

September 26, 2012

My Mother’s Lullabies

My mother used to sing us to sleep. Her lullabies weren’t choruses of “Twinkle, Twinkle...

September 23, 2012

A Story About Beauty

I have my father’s hands I have my mother’s tongue I look for redemption in...

September 14, 2012

The Armchair Astronaut Packs for Mars

This post is adapted from my manuscript, The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope: Essays at Play in the...

August 2012

August 15, 2012

Parenting 101

The latest fashionable parenting wisdom is that a parent’s wisdom doesn’t matter. Some public intellectuals...

July 2012

July 24, 2012

Conversation and (Self) Revelation

“Wonderful woman. Horrible children,” I overheard as I was leaving a store, right behind two...

July 03, 2012

Coming Home to Fatherhood

I recently saw a brief clip of a ten year-old girl in her classroom who...

June 2012

June 20, 2012

To See Her More Clearly

Growing up, my siblings and I were left on our own to figure out how...

June 15, 2012

In Another Lifetime

Early one recent morning, I’m still half-asleep. The cat lies curled up between Craig and...

June 05, 2012

My Kite Boy

I woke at one thirty with a start. My heart pounded in my ears. My...