Mother’s Day 2020 is different. (That’s an understatement, with a twist of sarcasm.) Me, mama, Greg and Mark. Note the bun warmer on the stove. I still have it! I’d been dreading this Mother’s Day–my first without my mama. I remember many years ago, a friend of mine whose mother had just died, told me […]

On an autumn afternoon, I meet a friend for tea. We sit outside, kitty- corner from one another, vying for the last rays of sunshine peeking over the roof of the café and warm our hands with cups of Earl Grey. It has been months since we’ve seen each other, and yet time and distance […]

Essential Supplies for Kenya In just shy of a week, Dennis and I are boarding an early morning flight to LAX, then to Paris,  and on to Nairobi. Even though I’ve traveled to Kenya over a dozen times, These trips still take lots of planning and preparation. I stay organized by making lists. Yellow and […]

31 August 2014 Before embarking on the Camino de Santiago (a pilgrimage through Spain), I pounded the pavement, dirt roads, hiking trails and any other surface that might provide some sort of physical conditioning.  One of my routes close to home, led me by a construction site. I watched as the ground was leveled, wooden […]

Visits in the slums of Nairobi. Deaconess Caren in the beautiful African dress is the icon of mercy. 10 August 2014 Kawangware (one of the slums of Nairobi) The Congo (a neighborhood of Kawangware) The smell assaults you before anything else. Not the usual smells belonging to Nairobi and her slums—the acrid smoke from indoor […]

Sharing our grief: Kenyan Friend Mary Chuchu and I For months I’ve attempted to put pen to paper. Oh, yes, there are pages and pages of scribbles in my notebook staring back at me, daring me to try to make sense of them, but they remain jumbled and incoherent. Truth be told, this past year […]

Tomorrow a young mother will be buried next to her father near her childhood home in rural Kenya. She leaves behind her three-year old daughter. Janet’s story is a bleak reminder of the need for improved healthcare for those who cannot afford to pay. She had grown used to the shame that surrounded her. Shame […]

I’ve had some time off these past few weeks and have filled it with resting, reading, walking and more often than I’d like, catching the ever shifting news. Tucked in amongst the tirades of presidential candidates, the gold medals of Olympiads, (some tarnished by bad behavior) appear heart-stopping images of victims of war and bloodshed […]

Sometimes by looking back, we see how things converge and come together. A dozen years ago I was finding my way, blending my vocation as an RN with a new vocation as a deaconess. That very year, 2012, I was introduced to two very different people who, unbeknownst to me (and to them), would be […]

The rains have come to California, providing much needed water to our drought-stricken land.  I don’t know about you, but I take it for granted that I can turn on my faucet and out comes clean water. Not so in many parts of the world. Water, if it’s available, is not clean, nor safe to […]