25 Jan 2012 1 Comment
My friend, Merlyn Wolf, had a dream last night. It was the dream of all dreams – for her. She sat down to a banquet of foods long banished from her touch—Chinese noodles, stir fried rice with shrimp and mushrooms, doner kebabs, succulent slices of lamb in a pocket of pita bread laced with chili [...]
30 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
I had an argument with my best friend yesterday. She was babysitting for me, I was telling her how to put my two year old daughter down for her nap, and she called me bossy. I was mad. It pushed all sorts of buttons within me—how others see me, how I see myself, and times [...]
11 Dec 2011 1 Comment
Faith and belief are words that are often bandied about until we lose track of their original meaning. Growing up Catholic directly informed my ideas of faith and belief; I used to think that they were synonymous terms—that faith was blind belief. When I was 13, I asked Fr. Brian, the local parish priest, why [...]
15 Nov 2011 1 Comment
I have been having a hard time writing lately – partly because I still often feel too nauseous to write, but mostly because I have just lost practice. I find myself drawing out all those old tricks, stream of consciousness writing, timed writes to prompts etc. that are designed to get the juices of my [...]
15 Sep 2011 2 Comments
In the spirit of my last post, I have been thinking about what it means to make a difference in the world. When I wrote the poem ‘We Are One’, I thought about how complacent I can be when someone, far away, is suffering. Sure I feel sadness, anger and compassion. I might even do [...]
13 Sep 2011 3 Comments
If she were my sister, I would try to save her from the militia that raped her and beat her, and tore her baby from her back and threw him against a wall and while his skull smashed and his cries rose and died, her heart started bleeding and never stopped. If he were my [...]
10 Sep 2011 2 Comments
I have vague memories of when Elvis died. In 1977, I was three. People didn’t talk about the alcohol and drugs in front me. All I remember hearing was that he ate too many hamburgers and died on the toilet, like the two were related. I got trapped in my mother’s friend’s kitchen that year. [...]
08 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
There is a guided meditation in The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. You walk through a parlor, adorned with flowers. There are people gathered in hushed waiting, all of whom you know. You walk to the front and there, in a coffin, is your body. You are attending your own funeral. Four people stand to speak – a member of your family, a friend, a work colleague and a member of your civic community. What do they say about you? What do you wish they would say about you?
07 Sep 2011 2 Comments
I have heard it said that it takes 10,000hours of practice to achieve mastery. Mozart, Bill Gates, they all put in their time. I have a long way to go. I’m only almost a fifth of the way there. And that’s just by quantitative standards. But I’m committed to my practice; I don’t want to [...]
07 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
Unimaginably violent culture shock: raw rainy season smells, mold on my laundry, slick green frog patties simmer where paddy field meets road, and the evening crooning of rickshaw vendors sounds like funereal dirges; I have been ripped out of my womb of familiarity and am filled with a vast loneliness. I discover a supermarket and [...]
