Category Archives: Uncategorized

Apocalypse

Posted on December 27, 2018 by

“Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we?” So begins N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, which appeared under our Christmas tree wrapped in cheerful, glittery paper. Arline gave me the boxed Broken Earth trilogy, knowing I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and dying, Faith/belief, Justice, Literature, Uncategorized, Writers, writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Toasted

Posted on August 16, 2018 by

A week ago, the sky above Seattle turned hazy, and an eerie orange sunlight fell across our hardwood floors. The air smelled burnt, toasted. Yesterday, we had the worst air quality for a twenty-four-hour period in recorded history. Almost exactly … Continue reading →

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The Ones Who Stay

Posted on June 19, 2018 by

Recent events have reminded me of Ursula K. Le Guin’s much-anthologized story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” in which a utopian society depends for its continued existence on the suffering of one child. Some, when they learn of … Continue reading →

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A New Year

Posted on January 11, 2018 by

At midnight on December 31st, Arline and I followed her cousins out of the house where we’d been eating tamales and into the empty residential street to watch fireworks bloom over the neighborhood. We toasted. We hugged and wished each … Continue reading →

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The Nonfictional Dream

Posted on November 6, 2017 by

  On the morning of May 18, 1980, volcanologist David Johnston radioed his colleagues at the Vancouver branch of the United States Geological Survey. Mount Saint Helens was erupting. “Vancouver, Vancouver!” he said. “This is it!” And a river of … Continue reading →

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Frogs

Posted on August 11, 2017 by

On a recent camping trip, I wedged the legs of my canvas chair into the rocks along the Cowlitz River and paddled my toes in the cold water. It was 95 degrees in the campground just outside Mount Rainier National … Continue reading →

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This.

Posted on July 1, 2017 by

Five years ago I started writing this blog to exercise my essay writing muscles. I wanted to experiment with voice and tone, with different topics. To think about my imagined audience. Why was I writing and about what and to … Continue reading →

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