March 1992
Sunbeams
Nor is it certain how long you will live. . . . Your life is like the flame of a butter lamp in a hurricane, a bubble on water, or a drop of dew on a blade of grass.
The Ward
The first noise was hardly audible, like the whimper of a child so hurt that the wounds had to speak, a primal crying that went far deeper than language. The hurt had lost all anger and selfishness; it spoke only of its existence, incapable of any control, gurgling its rawness.
Step By Step
To live without suffering means to live always in the present. The highest happiness is here and now. There is no time at all unless we cling to it. Brothers and sisters, please eat time!
Growing Old Is Not For Sissies
Sister Marion is a principal of a Catholic school. The fastest 56-year-old woman in the world, she is appropriately referred to as “The Flying Nun.”
Buried Stories
The idea that a person’s past could unconsciously and dramatically influence the present used to make me smirk.
The Dig
After a day in an archaeological excavation unit, surrounded by a stratigraphic picture two meters deep, you realize the present era, like the prehistoric community you’ve become a part of, will soon be just another layer chronicled in soil.
Blue Avenue
We sit in the sunlit breakfast room of our apartment, in white terry-cloth robes that have our initials monogrammed in navy just above our hearts.