After two long days of planes, trains, busses and automobiles, Jon and I arrived in León, Spain—the midway point on the Camino de Santiago. Pilgrims of all ages walk through the center of town guided by brass scallop shells imbedded in cobblestone streets or etched in sandstone on the sides…

Bucket lists aren’t my thing. I would rather look forward to something purely for the joy it gives me in doing so. When it arrives—whatever it might be—I try to embrace it wholeheartedly and with a sense of wonder. In looking ahead to a certain birthday this year where I…

I am a big fan of any place that welcomes writers, readers, and wanna-be artists of the written word. Richard Hugo House in Seattle is one of my favorite writerly haunts. If you’re even remotely interested in putting pen to paper, I suggest you check them out during their upcoming…

If you are anything like me, the end of August can feel like the downhill slope on a rollercoaster. Without looking at the calendar I feel Labor Day looming ahead, signaling the start of school and a change of pace, and for me, the days become more structured and less spontaneous….

At my first parent teacher conference of my son’s third-grade year, the special education teacher shuffled papers around her desk for thirty seconds too long. Nervous sweat pricked at my skin and I feared nothing but more problems. “I think we should find something to highlight Andrew’s skills in front…

I’ve spent nearly two decades watching my son be comforted by a series of feathered raptors that live in our backyard. His coop full of noisy hens is his sanctuary, the place he feels most understood. I find comfort in silence. A quiet house, a long walk in the woods,…

Share your story with me! I want to know about a time when you relied on someone or something that became your touchstone during a difficult period in your life. Did you have an invisible friend as a child? An animal whom you loved more than anything else? An old…

I have been to Seattle Children’s Hospital so many times with my son that I’ve become weirdly numb to the routine. I watch, detached, as families walk through the doors seeking answers to impossible questions or treatments for an illness that seems to have no name. I’ve been there. I’ve…

Each year, two remarkable guilds combine efforts to host the Seattle Festival of Trees at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle. This year, the Dr. Forrest Flashman Guild celebrated their 40th year of fundraising for uncompensated care. At the same time, the Autism Center Guild raised money to help fund…

My friend, Michelle, became a convert 5 years ago after watching my son play in the yard with a chicken slung under each arm. She’d been wary of these modern day raptors since childhood while she watched her grandmother chase them around the backyard for Sunday night dinner. But as…

I was told these words taped to my bathroom wall came from a letter exchanged between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his daughter, Scottie. I don’t know if this is true, but they are sound pieces of advice. These beautiful nuggets of wisdom remind me to claim all the definitions I…

When we write about ourselves, we lay the pieces of our human heart onto the page.  Our secrets, our heartaches, our shame, and our triumphs become a language of their own. A soul-speak. When I decided to tell the story of Andrew and Frightful, I knew this story was bigger…