I sat across the table from one of my English students at a coffee shop. A book called All New Easy True Stories: A Picture-Based Beginning Reader was opened between us. The stories contained in the book are high interest stories taken from real life and retold in simplified English. Illustrations accompany every couple of … Continue reading Even the Simplest Story
We were driving over a bridge on a highway. Trees painted the broad valley below us in rich shades of green. It was then, looking at the trees, that I realized the reality of what was happening to me, optically speaking. I shouldn't have been able to see the trees. Vertical supports lined the length … Continue reading What’s Holding Up the World
The sun slid down a crystal sky like a water droplet on a west facing window. With a generosity unknown to mere mortals, it poured out its warm light over the valley as if that was its last chance to do so but with the confidence that tomorrow would dawn anew and that tomorrow its … Continue reading Moments of Revelation
I parked my car at a tire shop in the city, got out, and began scanning the faces of all the people milling about, trying to determine who worked there for one (as opposed to who were customers) and out of the workers, who spoke Kyrgyz (as opposed to those who spoke Russian). Another customer … Continue reading Tire Shopping
A three-and-a-half-year-old's voice pierced the darkness between the back and front seat. "Is your husband home already?" she asked Laura. The little girl was sitting beside her mom and younger brother in the back. Laura was driving. "Yeah, he just got home," Laura said, heading down our street en route to their house in the … Continue reading Cries for Help
November 2014 So there I stood in the entryway of our apartment manager’s home along with the apartment manager, her husband, our neighbor, and a roof repairman, and from the sound of it, things weren’t looking promising. You see, it all started a few months prior, when Laura and I noticed a small leak in … Continue reading Places Where Flowers Bloomed: Temperatures Rising
He thought he knew. He didn't. Ten years passed. They weathered tempestuous seas those years, But each strike only strengthened them. The tears Dripped liquid, hardened, formed a solid cast, An anchor sure to hold their hearts, outlast The wildest raging of the sea, though fears Still mock. The fog that concealed truth now clears. … Continue reading He Thought He Knew
I was walking down the street en route to my house. Part way there I saw a sight that, to be honest, isn't that uncommon here. A man was lying on the side of the road, struggling to stand up. I didn't have to get close to know his condition. He was drunker than a … Continue reading Unintended Consequences
In the spring of 2017 we began to hear rumblings from our neighbors that repairs were coming to Yellow Bucket Street. And came they did. In slow, agonizing stages. First they tore up the road. Then we waited. Then they hauled in and laid long cement blocks that ended up becoming the equivalent of curbs … Continue reading What’s Plus or Minus 2,000 Years?
I sat across a coffee table from a 12-year-old, staring at my hand of Uno cards. If only I had a blue card or an 8, but it was not meant to be. My cards looked like the Spanish flag, all reds and yellows. I drew. I don't remember the official rules, but we were … Continue reading What I Learned Playing Uno With a 12-Year-Old