A searing novel, told in letter form, that explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman whose Black son has just murdered a white woman

How do we grieve our losses? How can we care for our spirits? one long listening offers enduring companionship to all who ask these searing, timeless questions.

Later, poets would tell of stars, shepherds, and seers, songs of angels…

Dear world, how does love right now move me to action?

We come into consciousness in the middle of the story...

Long before Mother’s Day was celebrated with brunches and flower bouquets, Unitarian Julia Ward Howe wrote her Mother’s Day Proclamation.

We have a holy obligation to bring about paradise on this earth; each generation helps us do that.

Motherhood must be a choice. It cannot be chosen for us.

Blessing something or someone is a way of expressing my gratitude and reverence for them.

Acknowledging that our dream was not happening didn't end the grief, but it did offer closure.

Spirit of Life, remind me to release that which no longer serves me so that I may be present to joy.

Can I do it again? Do I even dare? Do I have the strength? Because the cradle might be empty—again.

One day, I’ll have to care for my mother as she once cared for me. I’m not ready to handle the truth that our relationship must change.

This is a prayer for working parents zooming another meeting with a little face joining in; for new parents, waiting for new life without support; for the single parents, doing all this alone.

Before I birthed my baby, he was a possibility, a kick against my insides. With that first cry, first breath, he became a person in the world.

The crisis was an opportunity to learn to be fully me and love it, inner turmoil and all. I learned that strength comes from authenticity, never from perfection.

I was a foster parent long before I was a mom, and an inside look at families "in the system" reveals pretty quickly that love and parenthood are two different qualities, and the relationship between them is neither straightforward nor guaranteed....

Who are you going to be, today? And tomorrow? Who are we all becoming, together?

When I internalize cultural messages about the definitions of success or failure—or anything, really—I undermine my own sense of self-worth.