10 Brief Minutes in the coffee shop. There is a man with giant mushroom caps spread out on the table in front of him. Moments later, a baby with blond, curly hair reaches out to his Dad who pulls a small toy from his work jacket.  The baby grins and grabs for it.  I speak briefly to the man with the mushrooms because I’m curious and he seems sane enough. I don’t speak to the baby and yet I have a vivid image of him smiling in my mind. These are ordinary moments, and yet they stay with … [Read more...]

It rained in Portland recently. I’m sure that comes as no big surprise to those of you who live here or have heard that it rains in Portland all the time.  The truth is – it doesn’t rain all the time.  In fact, it only rains about 154 days a year (I looked it up).  The thing is, when summer starts on the 4th of July, it often doesn’t rain much for a while and this summer was a particularly dry one.  So for two months this summer, we all pretended like we were living in California.  … [Read more...]