A bit of a ruckus in Aisle Four grabs my attention. Stacks of bright notebooks and bins of colored pens separate me from a young father trying desperately to check off the teacher’s list in his hand. A little girl circles about his knees. Little fingers fly over items faster than he can stop them. […]
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“Call me Mara,” Naomi said. Tragedy chiseled her face and spilled from her lips. Pleasant, the meaning of her name no longer fit. Mara suited her, for it meant “bitter.” “I went out full and came back empty,” Naomi told them. I know many Mara’s. Women and men whose lives turned out so very […]
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The first August I lived in Italy, I had no idea what had hit the entire country. Still anemic in language and culture, I didn’t know what to make of the silent streets of Florence, usually full of people, suddenly deserted. My bread store with its big gray steel closure had a handwritten note on […]
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