Something fundamental in our culture has ended. What exactly, I can’t quite put my finger on. As many things in the liminal, it’s hard to grasp. But if we want to birth something new out of it, we have to come to terms with endings. We have to come to terms with the ultimate ending, the very thing Covid-19 forces us to look at: our inevitable... See more

I know now I was grieving something , the death of an ambition. I started attending reading events at Green Apple Books, my local bookstore, because it was something I liked in grad school, and I had to get myself out of the house. Going to those events was (is) a way of traveling without moving; they have afforded me an incredibly valuable... See more

There was a moment last year when I was reminded of the essence of Ichigo Ichie in a profound way. It happened during my 81-year-old mom’s visit from Japan. Throughout her month-long stay in Michigan, she expressed multiple times,

“I think this is my last visit.”

She had flown all the way from Japan to Michigan, her second trip last year, and... See more