A while ago, my friend moved to Seattle from her home back east for the summer, to live with her partner in his very sparsely furnished house. When she first moved there, she thought she would miss all the things …

When I grow up I want to be me
The best me you ever did see
So my work must always be
To keep me free.

When my kids were young, this was one of their favorite songs. They loved …

A while ago I attended a performance at my local theater, by Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery. Established in the early fifteenth century, Loseling was once the largest monastery in Tibet, home to more than 10,000 monks. After …

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The summer before my son James began preschool, I would find him in various corners of our Hornby Island home, talking to himself. “I’m getting dressed and having breakfast,” he’d chant out loud. “I’m putting my peanut-butter sandwich and juice …