“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien I had seen this photograph of my grandmother riding a tractor in an album at my aunt’s house for years, and it…
Hers is the voice in my head. When I leave the house, “Put on mascara, I can’t see your eyes.” “Don’t do anything stupid.” “There will always be somebody better and somebody worse.” “You need to learn to putz in the car and bip at home.” “Uff da.” “Many are the plans in the heart…
One of the most painful experiences of high school came at the hands of my friends. The four of us—two boys and two girls—spent the hot Phoenix summer before junior year together doing nearly grown up things: Eating lunch at The Olive Garden and driving home through the desert at night listening to Matchbox 20…
Yesterday Beau and I got into a fight. I was upset about something, he told me not to be, I told him he was being mean, he told me I shouldn’t tell him how to be, then I told him he started it…we were like a dog chasing its own tail. Miscommunication, lost in translation.…
My voice caught firmly in my throat. When it finally made its way out, after what seemed like at least a decade, it trembled mercilessly. I sounded like a fifth grader giving her first book report. I certainly had everyone’s attention now. This was the last thing they expected to hear from me, and my…
‘What is a Caucus-race?’ said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything…. Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to…
Well, it happened. All of my years in the classroom made me shudder at the thought of becoming a helicopter parent, those well-meaning and well-coiffed moms circling just outside the door ready to conference about every perceived injustice, ready with an excuse why their beloved child had not turned in the assignment. I vowed never…
I had big plans to drop my son off at preschool and come home to a freshly brewed pot of coffee and try to write something funny, poignant and thought-provoking for this month’s KINDRED. Perhaps something about how I want to teach my biracial kids to own who they are and speak up for themselves,…
We live close to the Locks here in Seattle, giant steel channels where boats squeeze together as the water rises or drops, depending on which way the bow’s facing. Without these Locks, Lake Union would bleed out into the Sound, its borders and depth forever altered, but with them, the two bodies of water stay…
Crumbled, wet earth slowly erupts with green magma. A tiny frond emerges from the dark earth. It blindly searches for light in a forest of low lying fog. It rises, up, up, up, but cannot find the slightest inclination there is anything waiting for it, so it begins to unfurl. I am afraid of the…
“What I hear when I’m being yelled at is people caring loudly at me.” – Leslie Knope Every toy that my husband, Akash, picks up with a sigh hits me like a mini, personal, attack. My own insecurities kick in: Another one you missed? Why is it so hard just to put things back…
Awaken the soul. Listen And fuel the craving for Kinship. Awaken the voice. Silence Then burst forth in glorious Singing. Awaken the mind. Wonder At all that the world has to Offer. Awaken the eyes. Dream of all that is yet to be Made. Awaken the body. Open Hands wide to…
When my husband Matt and I first bought this hundred-year-old farmhouse, we were astounded by the gift of it. In this seaside town north of Seattle, townhouses with postage stamp footprints are being built down the street in both directions, but this old homestead parceled off its farmland to suburban expansion and stopped with a third…
“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” —John Muir On a rare sunny Saturday in February, my little family sloughed off its cozy winter sedentariness and donned trail shoes and day packs for a hike in the forest.…
You won’t understand unless you’ve been through it, in it, under it. Dunk then emerge. Half and then whole. At six years old I had my first swimming lesson. The lakes in Minnesota, though dark and cold and rocky on the outset, are not frightening or foreboding. They are still. Drop a pebble in from…
Kindred 