Posted on December 1, 2011
I’ve been shopping for the perfect Christmas card, sifting through Nativity scenes framed in holly berries and bows. None of the Marys feel right. The lips are taut. The face, unblemished. We see none of the bliss and bewilderment that must have surged after birthing the son of God. We see no emotion at all […]
Posted on November 1, 2011
When Mary Chilton first spotted the New World in November 1620, the 13-year-old had been aboard the Mayflower for 10 weeks, stuck in the same clothes and cramped in dark, damp quarters among seasick passengers and dying goats. Each family was allotted one storage trunk for all their possessions. Imagine the terror and thrill of […]
Posted on October 1, 2011
Across the country, young married couples have settled on the perfect preparation for parenthood: a puppy. It is a trial run that delivers many of the same tussles and delights – a tiny, big-eyed creature who is named and measured and potty trained, who interrupts Netflix and upends the budget, protracting Saturday mornings and contracting […]
Posted on September 1, 2011
My friend is blogging again after a four-month hiatus. “In the last week, two people have asked me about this little blog of mine, and because my ego is easily stroked,” she wrote, “I’m back.” Another friend gave up blogging for Lent and voiced her anxiety the first week of Easter, back at her keyboard: […]
Posted on August 1, 2011
Implementing a Twitter firewall at home is a bit like asking a roommate to hide your Halloween candy. It is an act of surrender and of conquest. What you lack in self control you make up for in self knowledge. My self-imposed Twitter sabbatical has been a good move, setting my summer on a sunnier […]
Posted on July 1, 2011
Leave it to Grandpa to put things in perspective. It was half way through our second annual Christmas party, and I was flitting around, refilling glasses and collecting empty plates. Preparing for the party had kept me moving – wrapping presents, baking shortbread cookies, stringing 3,200 white lights on our Blue Spruce. Not exactly meditating […]
Posted on June 1, 2011
Auditioning for Patty Connors’ choir was a prelude to Russ’s audition to be her husband. She said yes to the mild-mannered tenor twice. They have enjoyed 15 years of marriage and music, raising a daughter and a son while chairing their respective departments at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn. – she in music, […]
Posted on May 1, 2011
Being Miss America is a lot of pressure for 18-year-old Teresa Scanlan. But then, when her mom was 18, she faced a lot of pressure too: She was pregnant and unwed. Teresa learned this last September, when the Nebraska native was preparing for the 2011 Miss America pageant. Her half-brother, Jerod, had called unexpectedly. It […]
Posted on April 1, 2011
Another batch of graduates is nearing the finish line, and preparations are humming along –party planning and robe ordering, i dotting and t crossing. And speech writing, of course. That’s my favorite part of the pomp and circumstance: the prospect of a send-off speech that summarizes the past four years and prepares for all the […]
Posted on February 1, 2011
The youth choir Christina Green belonged to performs just once a month, on the second Sunday at the 9 o’clock Mass. And sure enough, the day after the 9-year-old was killed in Tucson, Ariz., the youngest victim of the shooting targeting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, St. Odilia’s youth choir sang. It was Jan. 9, the feast […]