Michelle Martin

August 21, 2019

To light a fire

When I was a child in Girl Scouts, I loved doing the things that no one ever let little girls do at home: whittling away at a piece of wood with a sharp knife, wandering along paths in the forest for hours and starting campfires.

August 07, 2019

Thoughts and prayers

I was taking a break from wandering the streets of downtown Philadelphia, home to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, when I heard about the terrorist attack in El Paso.

July 24, 2019

Paper, paper everywhere

Somehow, I thought that when my kids got older, things would be easier. Not so much to keep track of. And in so many ways, things are easier. I still bless the day Teresa learned to fasten her own seatbelt and I didn’t have to crawl halfway into the back seat every time we went anywhere in a car together.

July 10, 2019

Lazy days

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but summer happened. After a cool, wet spring that extended all the way to late June, temperatures climbed and the sun came out. At least for several hours most days, occasional thunderstorms notwithstanding.

June 19, 2019

Dads and grads

Nothing like a cool, rainy weekend to foster family togetherness. That’s what we got this weekend, as we celebrated Father’s Day five days after Frank’s graduation from high school.

June 05, 2019

Trimming the bushes

When we started trimming, the front bushes were overgrown, their leafy branches encroaching on the sidewalk and obscuring the windows.

May 22, 2019

Finding hope

In the last three days, I read a Chicago magazine story about the things you find if you just keep looking down in Chicago and a Chicago Tribune column by Mary Schmich about a woman who left her purse on the Red Line and had it returned to her. Then my 18-year-old son told me about finding someone’s wallet in a suburban fast-food restaurant parking lot and driving it over to the address listed on the ID.

May 08, 2019

You’re welcome

When was the last time you felt welcomed — really welcomed — at church? At your parish or elsewhere? Or look at it the other way: When was the last time you felt unwelcome? Like an interloper, or like your presence was an inconvenience?

April 24, 2019

Playing games

The word “gamer” nowadays conjures up the image of a teenage or 20-something guy, planted in front of a TV or computer monitor, probably in a dark basement, all by himself.

April 10, 2019

It’s not the years

We had to buy a new car this weekend. Well, a new-to-us car, to replace the one that was totaled in an accident last month.
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