I met Awa in the Mall of America, among crowds of jostling people. I was with my siblings, trying to eliminate boredom from one of the endless days of the endless months of midwinter. She was caring for an autistic boy who loved to come to the Mall. She had never seen conservative Mennonites before. […]
Reading Somalia in Bayfield Read More »
I was twenty-two when I first wanted a baby. There were many young mothers in the church I attended at the time–some of them not much older than I–and I would stand squished between two pews after the service, holding a baby. I would smile down into its round raspberry face, stare at the triangle
We left at noon on Friday with Benny, my youngest brother, driving. He pulled away from our blue-shuttered farmhouse–the shutters weathered and in need of paint–and started past the row of dusty, dark-leafed lilac bushes that line our gravel lane–and stopped. “Do you have a bowl in your hands?” He cranked his head and glared
Siblings, and Waiting, and Road Trips Read More »
It is six thirty, and still dusky when I look through my bedroom window, the sky is lightening around the leaves of the maples. I wake early most mornings. I set my alarm for five thirty, because I want time to write before school. And every morning, I toss back and forth in my bed,
A Photo Journal of Corner Basement School Read More »
Friday, I helped my dad with the morning milking. It had been years since I helped, but that morning his usual help was gone, and I filled in. The barn was as I remembered. The cows were the same: poopy, fat, and slobbery, their sides splattered with bits of dried manure. I wondered where the
I Learned Life-ing from my Dad Read More »
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