She is absent again today. No eager hand raised at table one.  No sweet, patient spirit to work with Quinn at table two.  No look-at-these-new-earrings-I-got greeting at the door this morning. Because she isn’t here. She’s at home with her baby sister.  Her brother is there, too.   “He just turned four!” she told me […]

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I just finished reading House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.  It’s been on my to-read list forever and I finally scratched out some time to make it happen.  It didn’t take much; the book is a collection of short stories, some of which aren’t even a full page long. The stories were easy to […]

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Once I ran away and found one million songs. Of hurts and joys and memories of loves who’ve come and gone. Mountains in the mist and rivers running free. Crashing waves and ebbing tides and trails that climb on endlessly. Open pastures, fields of green, shifting sands, and tinkling streams. All the sights and sounds […]

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To breathe deeply and freely. To reconnect with friends. To seek out solitude. To run and read and write. To pick up pennies in parking lots. To use only Papermate Classic Mirado pencils– the ones with the red stripe on the eraser. To never resolve to give up Diet Coke again. To sleep in on […]

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I used to be really good with transitions.  I just rolled right through them without checking up. From English to Spanish and back again.  From sidewalk runs to trails.  From oceans to rivers to creeks out by the barn.  From country to country, continent to continent.  From one-bedroom apartments to log cabins to tents in […]

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