One day a dozen years ago, I met my friend Darlene at the park near our house. I remember pushing toddler Loretta in a swing and Darlene saying to me, “Why do you seem so happy?” I said, “I think it’s because of my food blog!” I had started In Praise of Leftovers just weeks befo … | Continue reading
Obviously, I love Christmas. Writing, baking, gift-giving, the return of the light in the darkest month. But as I get older, it’s clear how difficult this season is. I used to say, “Christmas is hard for a lot of people.” I’ve laughed this year and made this honest revision: “Ch … | Continue reading
Emily and I had a sweet moment today. We FaceTimed while I opened her Advent gift to me (we are nerdy like that, as Advent gifts are separate from Christmas gifts, of course) and we read one of Billy Collins’ new poems together. For the last three summers, I’ve been blessed to e … | Continue reading
I made Deb Perlman’s Coconut Brown Butter Cookies last week and they were a hit. YUM. (Mine spread out a bit more than hers, so maybe ignore her advice about flattening them? Or not?) I also made a batch of baklava that didn’t turn out because I boiled the syrup too long, some … | Continue reading
The word “advent” means “coming.” or “the arrival of a notable, person, or event.” Of course, if there is an arrival involved, then there is also waiting!. I don’t like to wait, and I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who said, “I love to wait!” Getting my booster shot yesterday … | Continue reading
I saw this today out my car window. Since I was looking for things to love, it became a poem, naturally. Whoever these two amazing humans were, they made my day. Sidewalk Reunion An open-armed grandmother, an ecstatic toddler, both running unusually fast for their a … | Continue reading
Some of you know that when I’m not cooking or writing, I work with organizations, teams, and leaders. I LOVE my work, but right now everyone is exhausted, bitter, burned out, and for good reasons. I spent last week doing phone interviews of folks working in the anti-sexual violen … | Continue reading
I took my laptop and meant to post every day, but the Aloha spirit took over. My dear reader Peggy texted me this morning and said, “Are you okay? I haven’t seen your Advent posts, and I just want to make sure everything is alright.” How wonderful to be missed! I assured her that … | Continue reading
I have finally reconciled myself to the fact that I will want to read every self-help book that comes out. And that I will, in fact, read too many of them. But if this really worked, we could have quarantined and isolated from one another in the last two years, ordered up all th … | Continue reading
Yes! I still cook! Obsessively, incessantly. Easy things, like lots of roasted vegetables, hearty soups, colorful salads. Between work calls, one of my habits is to go into the kitchen and find a little task to do, like freeze some over-ripe fruit, dump out stale crackers, or pr … | Continue reading
I moved back to my hometown ten years ago. Only a couple days went by before I started running into people I vaguely recognized. Did I go to high school with them? Did we used to be neighbors? Were we co-workers at the grocery store? I would usually pass by without saying anythin … | Continue reading
Grace Lee Boggs, the Chinese-American Civil Rights activist, said, “We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it’s never a question of ‘critical mass.’ It’s always about criti … | Continue reading
Unbelievably, it’s been eleven months since I posted anything here! But now it’s December 1st, and it’s hardwired into me—time for Advent writing. And I have a little announcement, which is that In Praise of Leftovers won’t be around anymore after January 31, 2022. I’ll be mig … | Continue reading
I read 91 books in 2020. For anyone that’s unhealthily keeping track like I am, that’s 29 LESS than I read in 2019. (You can read last year’s recommendations here .) I absolutely know why. A little something we like to call, “Worldwide Pandemic that Colossally Interferes with … | Continue reading
I have a thing for nativity sets. I’ve been known to spend hours online looking at Italian olive wood créches, and I once fantasized about stealing one from a church I visited. (!!) What calls to me about them is the picture of VULNERABILITY that they are, and the way they resist … | Continue reading
Surprised by Snow We set out for a walk through sheets of rain, my daughter and I. She convinces me it will be an adventure, and I’m learning never to say no when she wants to be with me. Ten minutes in, the rain turns to snow. Over and over we exclaim, I can’t believe it! Ho … | Continue reading
…it’s great strength is breaking into my body. I have faith in the night. (Rainier Maria Rilke) I took a few days off from writing. The urge to hibernate is becoming stronger and stronger as solstice and Christmas draw near. Uncharacteristically, I feel I have nothing to say. … | Continue reading
Lights of Love We all have the same idea— let’s light up this house. Let’s light up this block, every tree, bush, and roof line, every window and door frame. Let’s make it so anyone passing by can behold it for free, this flickering signal that says, We are still here! Hanging … | Continue reading
When it comes to questions of basic needs, I’m not a fan of uncertainty. I’m for a Universal Basic Income. I’m for Congress passing a stimulus package YESTERDAY that will start to take care of people, and I want zero uncertainty when it comes to questions like, “Will I be treated … | Continue reading
I’m okay, but I’m not okay in the way all of us aren’t okay. All day I have struggled with what to say here, and wanted to skip it. I had a few client calls, did some chores around the house. It’s now late afternoon, and the gray skies in Bellingham have been oppressive. I’ve ha … | Continue reading
From Enneagram teacher Suzanne Stabile , I heard this morning, “Staying comfortable eventually creates discomfort.” Though our external circumstances are out of our control (COVID!), some of us might be finding ingenious and dogged ways to stay comfortable. Some of my ways i … | Continue reading
My friend Jenn and I had a Zoom date yesterday morning, and she gave us the gift of thinking a little bit about the structure in advance. We did “show and tell,” with items that represented things like devotion, work, surprise, creativity. You know how some Zoom calls, fun and no … | Continue reading
Yesterday afternoon I finished work in my home office and Wyatt finished sending a batch of emails requesting references for college applications. We’ve all been under a bunch of deadlines in this house, and things seemed to be loosening up. I wandered out, rubbed his back (whic … | Continue reading
I listened this week to a Black police chief talk about using the Enneagram (the personality tool I’ve been obsessed with for 20 years) to teach vulnerability to police officers. He talked about how it helped bring the officers’ hearts “online,” making them both more tender and … | Continue reading
I took a walk in the cold rain today and talked to my friend Janel. She said, “I’m so glad you are writing every day for Advent. Because that’s so good for you.” Does she know me or what? She knows that I get all tangled up inside when I don’t have a place to sort things out. Sh … | Continue reading
I’m a social sciences kind of gal. The only “hard” sciences I took in school were things I absolutely couldn’t get out of. I remember falling asleep during Biology 101 lectures and performing miserably in the labs. Give me a book on human behavior any day. So I’ve surprised mys … | Continue reading
Just a favorite poem for you, one I’m sure to have posted here before. This one has been a friend to me since I was 19—a freshman in college, where Denise Levertov’s volume “Evening Train” was assigned in my Modern Poetry class. I remember buying it at the bookstore and then deci … | Continue reading
Scott Erickson’s Honest Advent is a new addition to my shelf this year. I bought it for the illustrations, which are really moving me. Today’s reflection is a wondering about Mary and her unease—specifically, did she have morning sickness?! It’s not written in the gospel … | Continue reading
A year ago, if you had showed me a photo of this scene—300 Christmas bike riders with masks on—I would have been petrified. Tonight, it was sheer gratitude. On a windless Bellingham night, with Loretta and Yancey and other lit bikers, all masked, onlookers calling us to from sid … | Continue reading
The best part of my day was sitting in the living room with my laptop while Wyatt’s girlfriend Tierney worked on a puzzle. Wyatt had just left, and Tierney said, “I think I’ll stay for awhile.” She knows the way to my heart. She puzzled, I sent invoices, we were quiet or not. Pa … | Continue reading
Today has been full. And hard. And good. Now, after the dinner dishes are done, I find there’s not much left in me. My favorite feature in the New York Times is “How _______ spends their Sundays.” It’s really comforting to me, for some reason. In that spirit, here’s my end-of-t … | Continue reading
I’m sure I wrote about the muskrat last year. But I guess we can handle hearing about this resourceful little mammal twice in 12 months? Gayle Boss says, Unlike his cousin the northern beaver, he has stored no food for winter …so every winter day he has no choice but to div … | Continue reading
In Amy Jill Levine’s book Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent, she says this about Mary: Although we have two genealogies for Joseph, the Gospels do not identify Mary’s parents or name any siblings. But for Mary’s actual background, we simply don’t know. I apprec … | Continue reading
A few days ago, I remembered. “Crap! It’s almost Advent. Will I write again this year?” There are a million reasons not to. I often get hooked by an insidious little voice that says “It’s the information age! Everyone’s posting inspirational tidbits, and you don’t need to crowd … | Continue reading
So much has happened since I posted my last batch of poems. Our Black sisters and brothers might ask us, “Where have you been this whole time?!” It’s clear that COVID-19 is only one of the scourges killing people, and it was impossible for my daily walks (which have still been ha … | Continue reading
It is astounding how many people are giving, creating, sharing, singing, writing, and cooking during this time. For those of us who are not sick, working overtime, or grieving the death of a loved one, we are left with more empty space. And truly, we are left with OURSELVES. It’s … | Continue reading
Hello, friends! Lately, I’ve been writing little daily poems about my walks and posting them on Instagram. You can follow me there for awhile if you’re so inclined. Or if you’re not, here’s 10 of them to catch you up! Attempting to capture the intense mix of grief, beauty of t … | Continue reading
Like many of you, the following monikers flock together in a description of my week: Hopeful, fearful, exhilarating, under-stimulated, connected, lonely, annoyed, content, overwhelmed, underwhelmed. A bundle of opposites, sometimes all in one minute. But a lot of solidity and tr … | Continue reading
I’ve begun listing even the most mundane tasks as a mental health measure. I don’t think I’m the only one. What’s helping the most right now is the question, “How can I make the day brighter for one person?” I won’t be the person to start a county-wide Facebook group that deli … | Continue reading
One of my colleagues has three big sheets of paper in her bedroom/home office. One is Homeschooling Wins (she’s recently become a single parent, so doubly hard). The others are Reasons to be Grateful and Reasons for my Malaise . Don’t you love that? You know who you are, sis … | Continue reading
Rice and beans, sometimes with a little chorizo thrown in. Frozen burgers, sometimes with a smash of avocado. Many many smoothies, pounds of frozen fruit. Matcha, chai, and every other kind of tea. Many rounds of this cake (without the frosting), sheet pans of nachos, baked pot … | Continue reading
Every day is full of decisions, and they are different than they were six weeks ago. In my case, they are mostly small. For leaders in my orbit, they are sometimes unthinkably consequential. But many of the day’s decisions are the same. Should I let myself have a second glass … | Continue reading
Reading Turtles all the Way Down led to John Green’s podcast which led to Amy Krouse Rosenthal which led to her book Textbook. Yesterday I woke up early to finish it, snuggled under the covers and enjoying not being wherever I would have been normally. Though there is gr … | Continue reading
I’m listening to John Green’s Turtles all the Way Down , and the teen protaganist recounts her mother singing her to sleep to the tune of Auld Lang Syne: “We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here. We’re here because we’re here because we’re here becau … | Continue reading
Every decision now seems like a giant one. Should I let myself go to the grocery store twice this week? Should I order something non-essential from Amazon and make someone deliver it? This week, it was, “Should I go to the physical therapist about my very painful shoulder?” I … | Continue reading
I just finished Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, a stream-of-consciousness tome about motorcycle travels after his wife and teenage daughter died when he was in his mid 40’s and at the height of his career as a drummer for the band Rush. He passed away fr … | Continue reading
I went for a walk with a friend this morning whose work is fundraising for children on the other side of the world. Sleep-deprived, she had been on a midnight videoconference with her colleagues from various time zones. She said, “My own community is suffering right now, and all … | Continue reading
I didn’t write yesterday, and I regretted it this morning. But I just couldn’t. I couldn’t pull myself out of the maelstrom. If there was a lab test that measured Negative Emotions, it would have turned up positive for every single one—Anxiety, Fear, Anger, Resentment, Lonelin … | Continue reading