My Mama’s Smile

Today you turned and looked at me when I sat next to you. You asked me what I had been up to as though it was the most normal of conversations and that we were picking up where we had just left off. You let me hold your hand and you smiled when I put my puppy Wilma on...

Love the One You’re With

Ever notice a flower growing up through the crack in a rock, defying all odds to assert it’s beauty in the world? That’s how love is sometimes… During a recent visit to what we refer to jokingly as Mad Park, the memory care facility where Mom lives,...

The End Game

I’ve never been one to read the last page of a book first, in order to find out how it ends. But I’ll admit I am a planner. I usually have a list, a day-timer and lots of colored post-it notes to keep me organized and on top of things. So when I heard that...

An Unlikely Church

  It was Sunday morning but we had no plans to go to church. I spent my first ten years as the daughter of Christian missionary parents in Japan and have found comfort and community in churches at various times in my life. Recently though, I have felt more...

The Story of Tan

The first time I met Tanner, it was November 5, 2010. I was hosting a yoga retreat at Skamania Lodge near the border of Washington and Oregon.  I was wearing my yoga-retreat-coordinator hat and attitude that day, not my crazy-about-dogs hat. I walked into the first...