I gathered a pile of petals for an impromptu photo shoot. The resulting images felt like a metaphor for our life. Maybe not a bowl of roses but a very bright, full life.
Read MoreIn the last year of my father's life he obsessed about his father's grave. His life had been upended in nearly every way, yet regularly he would call the office at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Butte, Montana to assure that his father's grave was being cared for.
Read MoreOver a month into stay-at-home restrictions last spring, we were all starting to look shaggy — me, Jeff and our Cavapoo, Archie. Barbershops, hair salons and dog groomers had all been shuttered for weeks.
Read MoreWhen I was growing up, my grandmother used to reminisce about how she ran away to the icehouse to meet my grandfather for their planned elopement. It wasn't until I discovered a hundred-year-old newspaper clipping in a box of family photos that I began to imagine a more complicated story.
Read MoreIn late April, for our final assignment in my online photography workshop we were asked to shoot self-portraits. I don't know many photographers who enjoy self-portraiture and I am no exception. But I had a concept.
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Although I may be a fallen away Catholic, I am a practicing Guadalupana. She is my go-to intercessor whenever there is a request for prayers or when I need a little personal grace.
Read MoreZoom life, it's how we are living these days.
Read MoreMissing invitees, I set the table for an imaginary dinner party. My best French linens, Imari china, the good silver, right down to the butter spreaders, fresh tulips and candles.
Read MoreIn the time of Corona, celebrating special events requires exceptional ingenuity. Without question one of the most creative to date was the elaborate virtual birthday party orchestrated by one high school girlfriend for another.
Read MoreSometime in the summer, the photographer Cig Harvey posted a beautiful image of a young girl with a soft light illuminating her long hair. Her caption read "There needs to be a word for moving dappled light."
Read MoreEntire families approach the graves, their arms overflowing with flowers: roses, chrysanthemums, cockscomb, marigolds, marigolds and more marigolds—cempasuchil, the flower of the dead.
Read MoreAs a graduate student in French literature, I have done my fair share of translation and understand that word for word translations often miss the intended meaning and there isn't always an exact equivalent word in the other language. More often there's a cultural or emotional shading that asks for thoughtful interpretation of meaning rather than a simple translation.
Read MoreWhile I supposedly have 239 followers, even my most popular posts average about 30 likes. And I diligently # what seem to me to be on point topics and places. Imagine my surprise when I woke one morning to 810 likes.
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In mid-September a friend challenged me on Facebook: Seven days, seven black & white photos of your life. No people. No explanation. Challenge someone every day.
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Nearly every weekday evening after dinner, my brother, Jimmy, and I would do dishes and homework with the help of our maternal grandmother. She was the one who quizzed us on spelling, arithmetic, and things like state capitols. Having gone to school when memorization was key to learning, she was the rote memory queen.
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Pilgrims, petitioners, the pious arrived before us. The wooden crosses they carried, sometimes barefoot, sometimes hundreds of miles across New Mexico, litter the path from parking lot. Others have transformed the chain link fence leading up to the sanctuary, attaching their offerings.
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Over the last few years, I have had several of my clients ask me about leadership transitions. This is not my area of expertise. Ask me about branding, media relations, content development or even about workplaces or urbanism or healthcare design. But don’t ask me who is going to take over your architectural practice.
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Curiously, even the most seemingly inarticulate people say intriguing things. If you listen, really listen. Organizations, and here I am referring to those I know best, design firms, will have the most banal descriptions on their website and in other materials. Worse, they will have hired someone to write copy and then it’s over the top, inflated and basically not credible. But it should not be that way.
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Late August in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the monsoon rains held off until early evening so we could take in the wonders of Indian Market. In its 95th year and billed as the preeminent Native arts market in the world, it is nearly overwhelming. As the Southwest Association for Indian Arts says, "There is simply no other time and place in the Native arts world where the impact and influence of Native culture and identity is reinforced, reestablished and reinvented." I cannot judge meaning of the market in the wider world, but I know that every time we visit, the experience brings me circling back on my personal history with Native American culture, and with my pre-occupation with culture as force in our lives.
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In 1996 Bill Gates wrote an essay titled "Content is king." Fast forward 20+ years and content's expanding kingdom means more and more of us are called on to write. But why are we writing? What story are we trying to tell? Asked to address these questions by the marketing team a large engineering firm, I gathered my thoughts.
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