Though my dad preferred a scalpel to an electric knife, on Thanksgiving the electric knife would do just fine. And fine was what everything had to be. Not just fine — but refined. My father insisted on orange zest in the cranberry sauce, oysters in the stuffing, and lemon peel in his espresso. My mother…
The first 45 (yes 45!) I ever bought was the Beatles’ “Love, love me do” when I was about seven years old. I bought it at Murphy’s Five & Dime for about a dollar. When I got it home I slipped it out of its sleeve and played it over and over. I wasn’t as…
Partying like it was 1999 – which it was – I spent a little sliver of my sabbatical from St. Luke’s at Venice Beach. I stayed with my new age, hipster, therapist friend Carey. We went rollerblading. We got our hair braided into a thousand little braids. We got our picture taken with a few…
Medusa. I definitely resembled Medusa. Twenty-one electrodes, like snakes had been glued to my head – a crazy helmet I had to wear for forty eight hours. A crazy helmet I had to wear because a crazy neurologist was trying to figure out how my crazy brain had gone crazy haywire. But not because I…
When asked what I do for a living, I no longer answer “clergy” or “Episcopal priest.” Frankly, lots of people just don’t know what to do with that. Stereotypes abound. We only work on Sundays. We are not allowed to drink nor to curse. And God forbid you should curse around us! (Truth be told,…
Once upon a time, I worked at a plant store called “Great Plants Alive.” Tragically — and quite ironically — most of the plants that came home with me came home to die. Much was the same back in the days when I still had a backyard. I was quite happy to just let Mother Earth be…
Blue. Blessed Mother Blue. Blessed Virgin Mary Blue. There is no sexier color in the Crayola Crayon box than Blessed Mother Blue. That is, of course, if you are a little Catholic girl. And it’s Advent. Please, Baby Jesus, bless me with Blessed Mother Blue! Now Mary (quite impossibly!) is very, very much what every…
Recently, I bought a new car! A shiny apple green Hyundai Venue. Compared to my little old blue sedan, driving the Venue, makes me feel something like an astronaut. My 2013 Accent had a radio with a USB port so I could listen to music. The Venue has something called Apple Carplay, along with the equivalent of an…
Stress can bring out the best, worst, or most creative in us. At age 42, I thought I had myself figured out. I thought I already knew how I responded to stress. When it came to big school projects or tests, or now when I have important work deadlines, I tend to procrastinate to the…
This week I went to visit my mom at Goodwin House, Bailey’s Crossroads. My mother is 91 years old and very functional, both somatically and socially, but she has no short term memory. She has lived on the 3rd floor Assisted Living unit for the past five years. My mom has experienced decline, certainly, as she…
Emmanuel Voices 
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