A couple of weeks ago, the woman I call my “growing up neighbor” died at the age of 110. Irene was a strong, resilient woman with a substantial French Canadian heritage, originally hailing from...
Division is on my mind today. Not the long division that I struggled to learn in the fourth grade — a different kind of division, one that’s happening between the people in this country....
When I was out walking yesterday, I noticed a man up the road working in his yard. I’d been told that he is one of the many Russian immigrants who have settled in the...
I live in the Inland Northwest, in the high desert of Eastern Washington where the Selkirk Mountains — a chain technically geologically older and separate — join the Rockies, though where one begins and...
I’m tired of politics, sick of every issue being charged with political tension, maxed out on current affairs. I’m scared to death for the environment, terrified that the high temperatures, fires, smoke-filled skies and...
A couple of days ago, I went to a memorial service. It was what I consider to be a fairly traditional affair, held in a Presbyterian church and centered around the departed woman meeting...
Yesterday I sat outside for a long time. Summers here are hot and dry, with temperatures lingering in the mid nineties and the humidity struggling to rise from single digits. Mountains and hillsides that...
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a special celebration for those of us who are studying the Russian language, along with several Russian speaking people who are learning English. We all have...
In the small town where I grew up, the high school band on Memorial Day would march the four blocks from the high school to the highway bridge spanning the river. Patriotic songs were...
My beloved dog, Cinnamon, is dying of cancer. I know this, she doesn’t. She didn’t look at the x-rays, didn’t hear the veterinarian give us the somber results of the ultrasound. She is...
