This is a favorite dish of our daughter Rachael. It’s a perfect addition for the vegetarians coming for Thanksgiving this year. This super-creamy lasagna is unusual because it’s made without tomato sauce. I highly recommend it for a holiday treat! Pumpkin Lasagna with Ricotta and Swiss Chard ACTIVE: 45 MINTOTAL TIME: 1 HR 45 MINSERVINGS:…
Growing a Softer Legacy
I never saw it coming—that I’d have a grandma who didn’t like me. And I don’t believe she ever did, at least not as long as I can remember. I have no memory of her extending kindness toward me. This puzzled me because everyone else in my life—family, friends, church—seemed to embrace me with open…
The Life I Didn’t See Coming
When I was 16, I knew that in my future I wanted a loving husband and several children. I also wanted a career, since I knew, from watching my mother earn her Ph.D. as I was growing up, that intellectual stimulation and economic freedom contributed to happiness. I saw myself in a helping profession, such…
Poem: Sweet Like Gardenias
A long day of work—students from noon ’til night,green against gray skies. I love my students:smart, unguarded, steady, bright—white flashes of light. My life is enrichedthrough this “enrichment” I give;a mourning dove coos. How did this happen—this unplanned yet joyful life,sweet like gardenias? Gratitude fills me.Life’s tender gift—so fragile.Somewhere, a dog barks.
Ray’s Excellent Honey-Sweetened Cranberry Sauce Recipe
It’s time to share Ray’s wonderful honey-sweetened cranberry sauce recipe to grace your table on Thanksgiving. It’s better to make a few days ahead so the flavors will meld. It is easy and delicious. No refined sugar, only honey. Here’s the recipe: 2 12 oz. packages cranberriesEquivalent volume chopped applesToss in a pan with 1/2…
Flash Memoir: The Unspoken Language of Seeing
We had red-orange “brick” linoleum in our kitchen at 902 East 9th Street, where I grew up. The pattern featured squares and rectangles of varying sizes, with gray, jagged “mortar” lines between them. My parents had that linoleum installed after we’d lived in the house for a while. It was part of a minimal kitchen…
A Dream of My Sister-in-Law, Sandra Leatherwood
A while back, I had a tiny snippet of a dream in which my dearly departed sister-in-law, Sandra Adams Leatherwood, appeared. She was young—maybe around 35 or so—and we were in the back garden of a house where she lived, though it wasn’t any house I recognized. She and I had been talking and laughing,…
Flash Fiction: Over the Hill and Through the Snow
“Come on, Henry, we need to get going,” Nell Castle said to her husband. “They’ll all be waiting for us.” Henry reached for his black hat resting on the top shelf of the closet. “Mother, I would rather just stay home, if you don’t mind.” He waited, hoping he’d get a reprieve. “Henry Castle, don’t…
Górecki’s Third: A Meditation on Love and Loss
Within minutes of hearing Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, Ray is sniffing, and I have tears running down my cheeks. This music, which is also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, is so beautiful that it literally will make you weep. Gorecki, who was Polish, wrote this symphony in 1976 and it is composed of…
A Veteran’s Day Repost in Honor of My Brother, Jim
My brother, Jim, rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy, serving as a medical officer to the Marines. After graduating from medical school, he was stationed at Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton. He loved the military and often said that if it had been more accepting of gay men, he would…
20 Minutes a Day 