“The dead are never far from us. They’re in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.” With these words, I ended my novel Ordinary Grace. Every Memorial Day, I’m reminded how true these sentiments are when I take part in … Read more
Fifty years ago this week, quite by accident, I met the woman who would become my wife. We were thrown together on a ride from the San Francisco airport to Stanford University, where I was a student. She was visiting on her spring break from the University of Nebraska, half a continent away. At the … Read more
I’ve always loved the Frost poem for which this is the opening line, and it came to mind yesterday as I was walking through a local wood here in St. Paul. Thanks to the polar vortex, we’re just beginning to emerge from the longest, coldest period here in Minnesota in twenty-five years. Day after day, … Read more
“Peace begins when expectations end.” I embrace this quote from Sri Chinmoy, especially when I consider the past year. It’s been a turbulent, unsettling time in so many ways. Plans cancelled, dreams unfulfilled, lives put on hold. Giving into despair has been a constant temptation. Yet here we are on the threshold of a new … Read more
I’ve returned to Minnesota just in time for the best part of my favorite season. There’s something in autumn that only the coldest of hearts refuses to embrace. Autumn is fire—in the trees, in the shrubs and bushes, in the sunrises and the sunsets. Autumn is the lovely blanket we wrap ourselves in as we … Read more