MEANINGMAKER

storytelling

  • the next big thing

    Yesterday I had lunch with a woman who, last year, walked away from a 25‑year corporate career – just a few years shy of the golden pension so many of us hang on for. She realized she didn’t have any… Continue reading

  • a mirror in the desert

    By some strange twist of fate, my kids started their lives perched in Justin Bieber’s old high chair whenever they stayed at my parents’ house for the weekend. It was a classic ’70s vinyl number – sturdy, a little scuffed,… Continue reading

  • all the days we did not live

    I decided to walk to work this morning. Unusual for me in the winter. On my way, I happened to see an unhoused woman curled up on the cold sidewalk on the other side of the street, surrounded by the… Continue reading

  • definition

    Woke /wohk/(adjective.) The moment a person stands uprightin the full measure of their seeing.As in what Pope Leo said:To be called woke in a world that sleepsthrough sufferingis no insult. Or,the strange conditionin which noticing the worldis treated as more… Continue reading

  • lift what you can

    My mother taught me to shovel snowthe way I imaginesome mothers teach prayer –patient, shoulder to shoulder. She’d come home from a long day,and say: Come on, let’s go.Out into the dark we went,into the hush of the world,the night itself… Continue reading

  • a small good thing

    Last night, just before I fell asleep with my Airpods still in, I listened to a short TED Talk about what it means to keep on creating in a world that feels like it’s on fire. Every one of us… Continue reading

  • at the threshold

    A lone mourning dove took up residence on our front doorstep this morning. She’s calm as a guest who knows she’s expected, though she wasn’t. A round little thing, soft-bellied and unbothered, as if she’s just content to be content… Continue reading

  • a gift in the cold

    Can we just talk about how the rain froze on the windshield this morning for a minute? Like a tiny murmuration of starlings – that breathtaking, swirling ballet you sometimes see those delicate birds perform by the hundreds in the… Continue reading

  • sunday school

    “I guess I feel that we should remember the deep emotions that prompt the urge to marry the next time we hear that marriage needs to be defended against people who want to participate in it. The last thing any marriage needs… Continue reading

  • the mathematics of me

    Twice in the last week, I’ve dreamed of the Fibonacci sequence. I don’t remember either dream – only that in the second dream, I kept reminding myself that I had to remember those words when I woke up. Of course,… Continue reading