She rises up out of the depths, this mysteriously strange human with a beautiful name—Temma Day—coming from heroines and ancestors. With a shock of sand-colored hair, and eyes that change color with the day, she sees nothing and everything at the same time. Emerging into a vast valley, bending with the earth and the grass, […]
It hardly ever happens that I walk out of a movie theater after viewing a film and want to turn right back around and see the same film once again. Yesterday evening was one of those rare occurrences. I experienced such a strong desire to make a 180 degree turn back into the movie theater. […]
It’s now two days since Temma’s “big birthday bash”. It was a wonder! Close to sixty-five friends, neighbors, and family came out to celebrate Temma’s forty years of life, and many others who wanted to be there but could not make it. I have a little more time to reflect now than I did in […]
“What are they?” I whispered to myself as I walked down the side path to the lake in Busse Woods in order to get a closer look. They were birds lying, folded in, like lumps of white. Every once in a while I could catch a glimpse of black when one of the lumps would […]
On a recent visit to the Art Institute with Tim and a friend, I dragged a little into the area of the galleries of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean arts that contains one of my favorites, the Ando Gallery. We had already been at the museum for a couple hours and I was running out of […]
Growing up in Michigan is a story of winter, at least in my memory. The harshness of winter when things cannot grow in the ground and the fun of winter tobogganing at the golf course hill, snowboarding on the small hill in our backyard, sledding, snowball fights, and walking out on the big ice waves […]
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 […]
A few days ago I finished reading our friend Riva Lehrer’s new memoir, Golem Girl. I closed the back cover of this most beautiful book and felt so full of wonder, joy, spirit, and hope that I wanted to get down on my knees and pray and then get up and dance and sing. It’s […]
Writing From the Margins 