Archive for January 2025

“This is for you,” they said, pushing a large present towards Mark and me. My daughter Morgan and her husband Joey grinned and cuddled closer in their blanket on the couch. Besides the twinkling Christmas tree in our green carpeted living room, our family of eight sprawled, some holding hot mugs of coffee, others biting…

I laugh as I try to slice through glistening barbecue ribs with a plastic knife and it breaks. I think I’ll just use my hands to eat the ribs, I murmur, watching my table companions. Men and women dot my eight-person round table, one of five or so tables in the large retreat dining hall.…