It’s Everyone’s Birthday!
I stepped out of my comfort zone twenty years ago when I first came to Hong Kong, but I didn’t realize then that beyond every doorway we step through, there is another threshold we must dare ourselves to pass.
The Absence of Color
I hope you are all staying safe and sane. I am fortunate to be holed up on beautiful Whidbey Island. I’m here with my 94-year-old mother and my sister who is going through chemo, and while peeling myself away from the news and finding time and energy to write is...
Bodies, Covid-19, and Cancer
I live in my head, as do many writers, but I’ve been thinking about bodies lately. This is partly because this month I am in a writing workshop where we are writing essays on what the body remembers. Not much, if I ask mine. My head knows that there were triumphs and...
Patching the Past Together in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Finding the bigger story requires always requires you to let go of the small one in your head. To open up to the messy realities, the uncertainties, the multiple interpretations.
What I Wish I Had Said in my Essay About Abortion: an addendum
When “Waterbabies” was accepted for publication by Memoir Magazine last year, I was elated. It was my first “yes” from a literary magazine. The editor asked only for a slight reorganization to emphasize my focus on healing, to not end on the word “blood.” I made the...