The relationship between a mother and daughter can be harrowing. It holds within its lifeline the expectations and assertions of all the mothers that have come before and all the children that will come after. The balance of such a connection shifts with age, vocation, and relationship status. It is not a thing to take lightly. Beneath Yi Shun Lai’s humor, expectations cut deep for both the mother and daughter in her debut novel, Not …

I spent the first three decades of my life running away from home. During my teenage years, I bided my time until college. Then in college, I bided my time until adulthood. I managed to come home only for holidays, despite the fact that I went to a university in the city where I grew up. How did I do that? How did I not run into my parents at the park or the grocery store …

MARK 12:31-33 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 1 JOHN 3:18 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. It’s dark here still–the sun on its way up chasing the moon. The sky is a purple gray, the color of a bruise. The whole world feels bruised. My children and husband are still sleeping while I think about all …

One night, in the not so distant past, I found myself cooking three meals, three times a day. If you’re doing the math, that’s nine different meals every single day for three very different types of eaters. Dinner was the worst. By 6 pm, I would begin prepping a meal for me and my husband to eat after all the kids went to bed. By 6:30 I’d whip up an easy-ish toddler dish for my …

Oktoberfest, the world’s greatest beer festival, is held annually in Munich and other cities around the world. Stretching from September to October, this salute to beer seems off-limits for kids at first glance. But this isn’t touring wine country with the littles. It is, if done right, the coolest state fair and carnival and concert wrapped in to one. This is one family event where every single one of you can have fun. It’s ironic …

Amazon bought Whole Foods. Robots are stocking the warehouse shelves. My cable company representative is a staccato automation. This is not Blade Runner. This is the world. I bussed tables in a meat-and-three at age 15. That was my first job. Despite the fact that I wasn’t allowed near any food that hadn’t been chewed or manhandled, I still had to dress the part. I was issued black pinstriped pants with an elasticized waist – …

PSALM 143:5-6 I remember the days of long ago;     I meditate on all your works     and consider what your hands have done. 6 I spread out my hands to you;     I thirst for you like a parched land. I wish I could wear phylacteries without being weird. Observant Jews can wear them during prayers. There would be something so comforting about rolling up those passages of scripture and placing them in their boxes and strapping them on to my …