The people we choose as family ~ On a warm midsummer evening in London, the breeze from the Thames attempts to whirl itself into the Wooden O, Shakespeare’s Globe. The vibrancy of each patron counters the cooling effect with its own kinetic energy, the crowd heated by anticipation for the opening act. As the twilight glows around the theater, my own curtain rises, its fabric beginning to extend its reach, unbeknownst to the connections that would take root among us. These s

Love under a magnifying glass ~ My heart has sung along the melodies of countless love ballads—defining and refining, layering and sculpting, glazing and glowing—as if our melodies of love can be molded like clay. Yet at times the ceramic of love remains unfinished, awaiting another transformative flame. Digging deeper into my emotional depths, I find beneath the fragile surfaces of our tempered selves lies a concealed blindness and unrealized mystery, dormant within the da