The mother in Virginia

Fifty-two years ago today, a teenage girl in Richmond, Virginia gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She knew he would never again see her smiling at him, or hear her voice say “I love you.” She gave him a name, knowing that he would never use that name. And then she let him go. Today, on … read more The mother in Virginia

Guilty, guilty, guilty

The cop’s flashers come on as soon as I pass him, and he pulls out to follow me. Immediately my mind and heart are racing. Did he track me down for doing 85 mph on the Interstate Tuesday? Will he arrest me for not speaking up when the clerk at Ingles charged me for regular … read more Guilty, guilty, guilty

Day 95: Memory guts

When we lose a memory, where does it go? Inside the guts of a computer, the information is still there even if we can no longer activate it. That must be why I’ve kept this decade-old Vaio laptop in storage for almost five years. Couldn’t bear to just toss it in the trash. It holds … read more Day 95: Memory guts

Day 64: When I get older

For people of a certain age, the number 64 causes the Beatles song to immediately pop into our heads. When that song came out, 64 seemed like a truly ancient age. And now …. well, “When I’m 64” is less than eight years away from today, Day 64. Only 2,859 days. Not much more than a box of pennies. … read more Day 64: When I get older

Day 45: The blur of time

Time lapse photography is eerily like memory. Days get clipped into seconds, and all of it speeds by – making it hard to distinguish what the exact difference is as each image blends into the next. How is Day 43 different from Day 34? What happens when one day piles atop another? In my second round of … read more Day 45: The blur of time

Day 30: If I live to be 97

The phrase has been running daily in my head for the past month: “If I live to be 100…” Until recently it was simply a hyperbolic expression of the impossible, along the lines of “If I had a nickel for every time that…” It didn’t seem that living to be 100 could be possible. Or … read more Day 30: If I live to be 97

Day 26: All is forgiven

The hardest part of moving from Ohio to Seattle was leaving behind all my friends. I flew back there to visit once in the first year, but after that my parents had moved to Arizona and my sisters were scattered in three different locations. There was nothing pulling me back. I was newly married, a … read more Day 26: All is forgiven