Temma and I got our little tree trimmed with all our ornaments this afternoon. That is always a nostalgic task. Many of the ornaments come from friends, as far back as when Temma was a baby and coming off life-support at the hospital after her cardiac arrest. Tim and I came home to our apartment […]
Category Archives: Mother
We do some reflecting back and forth to each other.
I just finished reading, A Ghost In the Throat, by the Irish poet and author Doireann Ni Ghriofa, and I wish that I hadn’t (finished it, that is). I am entranced with her voice. I’m in love with her love and obsession. She and I have gone through a similar birthing experience, although our outcomes […]
My mom is beautiful. She just turned ninety-three-years old. I don’t know if she ever really yearned to be a mother—especially of five children. I’ve not asked her that question. Or was it the only alternative to a woman of her generation, married young with an eight-grade education? Her own mother died when she was […]
When was the last time I spent an entire day at home with my daughter, Temma, just the two of us? It’s been awhile. And, thus, not much time writing either, beside sermons, e-devotions, and newsletter articles. I have returned to full-time pastor work after five years working part-time in the church. When I was […]
“Here’s what I have to say to American liberals and leftists: instead of listening to the strategists, who don’t believe it’s possible to dramatically change our society, can we finally be bold and listen to the artists and the outsiders and the radicals and the freaks and the avant-garde and the base and the youth […]
(In the photo my mom and I are looking at one of Tim’s paintings of my daughter Temma, titled “Bower” when it was hanging in the Grand Rapids Art Museum in 2014’s Art Prize exhibition.) I had the opportunity to spend some extended time with my mom a couple weekends ago when I was in […]
Writing From the Margins 