life

  • There is a negativity in the air right now that cannot be ignored. At moments like this, I find myself asking whether we are watching something genuinely dangerous unfold under familiar language. Christianity? Patriotism? Authority? I do not say that lightly, and I am not saying it from a distance. I am asking these questions…

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  • Reflections on 25 Years in the Paranormal

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the fact that I’ve been doing this work for twenty-five years now. That number landed on me in a way I didn’t expect. Not as a milestone. Not as something to celebrate. Just as a quiet realization that a large part of my life has been spent sitting…

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  • Mornings Perfect Light

    Mornings Perfect Light

    Morning light. Quiet house. Everything exactly where it should be. It’s six in the morning and I’m lying here listening to my grandsons sleeping at the foot of the bed. They probably stayed up later than they should have, but we were having too much fun to care. Life doesn’t really prepare you for what…

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  • Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting

    Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting

    In fact, I wasn’t. When I was eleven, there was a kid in school named Dwayne Hayes. Everyone called him Didi. For reasons I never quite understood, he and I didn’t get along. Didi fancied himself a kung fu master. He was always kicking, spinning, throwing his legs into the air like he was auditioning…

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  • Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting

    Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting

    In fact, I wasn’t. When I was eleven, there was a kid in school named Dwayne Hayes. Everyone called him Didi. For reasons I never quite understood, he and I didn’t get along. Didi fancied himself a kung fu master. He was always kicking, spinning, throwing his legs into the air like he was auditioning…

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  • Meet Me in St. Louis

    Meet Me in St. Louis

    Every year, for as long as I can remember, I watched Meet Me in St. Louis with my mom. Every Christmas. That was our tradition. She loved that movie. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was teaching me something. About music. About warmth. About how certain stories quietly become part of who…

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  • Walking With My Father

    Walking With My Father

    I had a dream last night that stayed with me long after I opened my eyes. It felt real in that quiet way some dreams do. In the dream I was walking with my dad at Christmastime. We were at Northwest Plaza in St. Louis, going to see Santa, and I was maybe four years…

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  • Grace: A Conversation with Steven LaChance

    Grace: A Conversation with Steven LaChance The bestselling author on fire, survival, and the fierce humanity behind his most daring novel yet

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  • The Space Between

    My favorite time in the theater has always been that quiet space between call time and performance. The house is still, the seats empty, the stage lights warming the air with their glow. It is a suspended moment when the outside world falls away and you are left alone with your breath, your body, and…

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  • The Kind of September

    “Try to remember the kind of September.” That line has been echoing in my head all day, and maybe it is because September once carried a very different meaning. When I was young, Labor Day was not just a holiday. It was the last day of freedom before school began again. In St. Louis, we…

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