I was sitting on our hotel balcony with a cup of coffee, watching the waves roll in, when the most extraordinary rainbow appeared. Its arc stretched across the horizon, every color distinct. On the surface of the water, its reflection wavered and danced, the same...
In the nature video I’m watching, a large snail shell washes ashore. One curious-looking hermit crab finds it first, circling and tapping, testing the edges and poking its head inside. Soon another crab joins, and then another. They circle each other, examining sizes, until a line begins...
At Emma’s gymnastics practice, a group of little “ninjas” was tumbling across the mats. The class is designed for three- and four-year-olds to jump and flip and run and climb until every bit of wiggle works its way out. One challenge is a rope that...
We were stopped at a red light when Emma pointed to the birds lined up on a power line. She grinned and said, “They’re recharging.” I must have looked confused, because she explained that her class had watched a video called The Birds Aren’t Real. It was...
Every sixty seconds the digital frame on our kitchen counter offers me another reminder of how fast time moves. The images tumble out in no particular order, first days of school beside ice cream-sticky smiles, winter coats followed by swimsuits. As I wipe crumbs from...
Webster is a little white duck who rides along on the rearview mirror of my car. He looks like he’s perched on a swing, dangling from a thin cord. On bumpy roads he careens back and forth like he’s holding on for dear life. Other...
By eight in the morning it was already one hundred degrees in Phoenix. I was driving home from dropping the girls at school, the news playing on the radio, the weight of it pressing in. War, cruelty, hate. All of it too much to carry...
If you’ve ever walked across a park or campus and noticed an unplanned trail worn into the grass, you’ve seen a “desire path.” It’s the contrast to the paved walkway, evidence of someone choosing a different route than the one that was laid out. The planners...
When Ella was little, our living room often looked like her Montessori classroom at nap time. She arranged her dolls and stuffed animals lying in careful rows, then laid small blankets across their backs. I can still see her tiptoeing along the carpet, careful not...
There is something both ordinary and extraordinary about the ways we reach for each other. We crave connection to say the things that matter, to share our days, to hear and be heard. A phone has long been one of those places, holding the sound...