The Melting World

My husband and I waited outside in the cold for 1 hour and 45 minutes to get inside the sold-out rally held today in downtown Minneapolis. Then another hour inside thawing out until he began to speak to a packed concert hall. I saw a baby probably two months old and an dude with a […]

Not really much of a cake eater, but he was happy to blow out the candle anyway.

Trick or treat?

First pumpkins ever carved by my son’s care assistant (from Sweden by way of London and Belgium) and my son (the larger pumpkin is my son’s design).

My son has begun his swimming lessons with his teacher, Todd, who is a soft-voiced and patient man who looks like an ex-footballer. Todd just ignored my son’s intermittent and nervous repetitions of “All done” which surfaced during the 30 minutes and kept encouraging my son to reach with his arms and splash and kick […]

Well, my son has officially lost his locks today at his first visit to a hair salon: the lollipops, movies, and bubble machine kept him content as the stylist lopped off his locks. We think his new look makes him look older, and it’s a lot easier to wash and dry, too. But he looks […]

Yes, it has been awhile…I want to have time to write here, to you, my friends, but my life is so filled with work–40 hours of my life often feels washed into a stream I have no control over–and often I feel I have no time to rest my brain or soul–to be alone to […]

A milestone has been reached. My son said his first three-word sentence last evening, and he said it with such pleasure. My heart blossomed into a giant sunflower–and he is my sun: He shouted, “Lion says Raaawr!” How many of us can claim a first sentence of such power? Which leads me to a fable […]

photo by grandma brown

The leaves on the maple tree across the street from my office window have transformed into the same color as the burnt red brick of Eddy Hall. I want to take a picture to show you this chameleon miracle, but I have yet to locate my camera’s recharger. On a positive note, it is Friday […]

(Outsider art from Asahikawa Public library) This Morning I dreamt my man held my hand against his warm green sweater The man in jean shorts I share a bus stop with finally mouthed good morning The brick storefront I stand in front of just had a silver spiral door knob installed Fog covered the fields, […]

(A dragonfly by an outsider artist from new library exhibition, Asahikawa Public Library) For the first week and a half I have been taking two buses to and fro work, but gradually it dawned on me that the simpler way was to walk. So, I began walking as soon as I disembarked one bus and […]

As my family was clambering into the car outside our local megaplex shopping center, the sky told us to stop and stare. Wow!

Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain and more Rain for the past three days. Hokkaido is not supposed to get a rainy season like the rest of Japan, but it seems to me as if we get it, too, but without the uncomfortable high temperatures found on the main island. I don’t mind rain, however, because […]

As Dickinson wrote, some moments we see “a certain slant of of light.” Here my family witnessed the gold glow of the setting sun. Such moments make a life worthwhile.

If only the world and my mind could be as peaceful as my son looks right before he wakes up in the morning.

Chie is a sublime cook, and she mixes the spices perfectly every time. I could gush on and on, but simple enough to say our family loves her and her food very much. I think the greatest cooks are often great people, too, as is true of Chie (and Aunt Michele in the D). Chie […]

Tucked down a side street near Kaguraoka park is my favorite restaurant in town. (And you may recall that I earlier wrote about my favorite cafe, Chamomile Cafe, here). The restaurant is called, of all things, Hindi Hipster, and it is run by a single proprieter, Chie, who has homestayed in India maybe 5 times […]

Here it is!