Miracles Happen

 

As I walked the hospice doctor to the front door, a question burned inside. Dad was entering the final phase of his life, and he’d recently announced he planned to walk again. Since he hadn’t moved his legs in over seven years, I suffered over the impossibility of it.

“Doctor, I worry about my father,” I began. “He’s so overly optimistic all the time. I feel he lives in a constant state of denial.”

Studying me carefully, the kind man smiled. “No, you obviously don’t understand. […]

Time to Speak Up!

Feeling the heat from beady eyes over my shoulder, I wanted to turn around and punch the kid behind me for stealing the answers to the test off my paper. But, knowing he was the 8th-grade star athlete, as well as charmer all the nuns loved, I felt it best to keep my mouth shut. She’d never believe me anyway.

 

Going to St Charles Catholic Grammar School in the 1960s, it was well ingrained into all the students not to tattle. The nuns had more […]

Not my problem

As my younger brother, Tim frantically searched the house for his high school history paper due the following day; I rolled my eyes in disgust. This wasn’t just the first time the dog ate his homework. It was a habitual occurrence, and, being his older sister who fixed all of life’s mishaps, he tried to make it my issue too.

“Jackie, have you seen it?” he hollered, rummaging through the papers strewn all over his bed and on the floor. “I need your help!”

“What makes […]

My World of Imagination

On a recent trip to the Stanford mall, I found myself in a terrible traffic jam. No, not the frustrating kind on today’s freeways where we grit our teeth to hold back building road rage, but unnerving just the same. I was hungry and on a mission to get some Pinkberry frozen yogurt before perusing the stores when I found myself stuck behind a crowd of people moving at a snail’s pace.

“What is going on?” I grumbled, wondering if there was a demonstration of […]

I still pray

Dear President Trump,

While I know you’ll never read this, I felt compelled to write it just the same.

When you became president, I scratched my head, and said, “Huh?” You’d never held a political office and seemed, to me, unqualified and unprepared for the enormous job at hand. On top of that, your words stirred hate and anger in your campaign speeches, and your comments about women left me gagging. But, I was trained by my Irish Catholic father, the son of immigrant parents, to […]

On Being Modern

As I opened the box with a picture of a half-eaten apple, excitement surged: soon my life would have speed and efficiency. My current laptop was old, tired, and moving at a snail’s pace. Like that cliché known as a mid-life crisis, I needed a younger, newer model to make me feel alive again. But as I turned it on, my joy quickly dissipated. The internet connection in my new apartment was not recognizing the password and wouldn’t allow me to change it on […]