When do you say “I love you” to someone for the very first time? You shouldn’t say it the first time you think it, because the love may change, or he may not be ready to hear it. You shouldn’t hold it for forever in your heart, because the words are a gift, whose truest purpose […]
The sunrise this morning is beyond description. Mom and grandma are perched on the couch, looking out the window at the horizon like children waiting for a mysterious visitor to knock on the door. Their innocence and wonder melts my heart and I join them. As the sun rises, it is pierced in half by […]
Every February, Mom and Grandma take the long drive up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to experience the heart of winter in the tiny town of Paradise and watch a dogsled race. The UP 200 is a qualifying race for the Iditarod and I am fascinated by its modest exoticism. Even before I reached a maturity […]
This morning, the weather is clear. It’s time to go. Everything Mom does is slow. Maybe not slow-slow, but slower than my pace and it’s frustrating me. Why can’t I be patient? Why do I see each moment as an opportunity to show her what she could be doing better? I am on her vacation […]
Waking up in the hotel room is nothing like it is in the little cabin. There is no window to sit and watch the sunrise from. In fact, when I look out the window, I see nothing. The storm has subsided not at all, and sunrise will serve only to change the hue of our […]
The streets in Marquette are closed off where the sled dogs will be coming through in the next few hours. We get a spot by the window in a downtown pizza parlor and watch the people congregate on the sidewalks. I’ve never see a sled dog race before but I’ve imagined it. In my mind, […]
I wake before the sunrise to watch it come up. In the safety of the warmth inside the cabin, I huddle up against the window and look out along the vast and mighty Lake Superior, not 20 yards away from me. There is a lone streak of color in the sky. Sunrises are so different […]
We take one more stop before we reach the cabin- this time to Tahquamenon Falls. It is -12 degrees and a short walk to the water. We are accessing it from the world of people– where you start in your car and walk through the parking lot past the gift shop down the paved path to […]
Another newspaper has died in Detroit. Like so many others before it, The Michigan Citizen succumbed to the uncompromising economics of modern news, where corporations won’t pay for unflattering content and readers don’t pay for any. As print media wanes, electronic media flourishes. This tradeoff may appear to be more democratic – anyone can contribute to the […]
Grandma died last week. After 2 ½ years of bedrest in a trailer she shared with Dad and his girlfriend, she passed away. Everyone remarked at how she had been of sound mind until the very end. “Just yesterday, she was yelling at me like always!” said one of the home-care nurses with the strange […]
