• Family,  Friends,  Home,  Life

    Shamans and Prophets and Miracle Workers

    I know shamans and prophets and miracle workers. They use their hands to plant beauty and their feet to run to help. They call down blessings for me and offer up curses when I need a bigger voice to tell God I’m sick of this. They are my village and they are raising me. And they do it while they dress their own babies and feather their own nests and walk through their own fires. I have incredible people in my life. I knew this before. I have been humbled by their grace, humored by their good will, encouraged by their presence. But lately I have been walking through something…

  • Home,  Life,  Love

    Make Yourself at Home

    I am in the SeaTac Airport for a layover and by hour 3 it feels familiar. It feels like I belong here. I have breathed this air in and out, I have walked a few places more than once, I have favored a spot on the train. This isn’t my home, but it could be, I guess. If I had to make it mine. It’s the same with life, I think. I have moved around in this skin – I’ve scraped it and stretched it and burned it. I have gotten familiar with my thinking patterns, learned what I tend to do and when. I have picked favorite sounds and smells…

  • Cancer,  Family,  Home,  Love

    The Cabin

    For me, Home smelled like Raccoon Court – oak trees on a lake, mossy rocks and too many leaves. The concrete cracked over wild earth reminding us she is far from contained and that she did the long-suffering despite our groans come summer when the weeds needed pulling. We tucked our stories into this old, tiny cabin surrounded by deer and birds and these round petaled flowers in tall grass. Does it sound a little magical? Good. My childhood saw magic. Sometimes we go back. My brother and I drive down the familiar roads and we can’t wait to breathe that air. We’ve taken friends and spouses, we’ve gone alone, but…

  • Deployment,  Home,  Love,  Marriage

    Come Away

    We played “Come Away With Me” at our wedding – our first dance after making a promise way too big for a couple of arrogant kids. It’s a lazy, lovely song about the easy adventure of falling in love. Nora Jones croons in exquisite alto how to let go and join in on the act of being with another person – on a cloudy day, under rain on a tin roof. We swayed in dress shoes under twinkle lights while we whispered the lyrics and conjured up a long, adventurous life together. Those our rhythmic first steps into years of coming away with each other. To a brick boxed house in North Carolina, to…