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When my children were small, they used to ask "who is the boss of this place?" and I'd answer "I am" or "your father is" if I needed back-up. It's a good thing to know. Tom Morphet asked a similar question in an editorial in the Chilkat Valley News two weeks ago,...

"There is a faith in morningtime, there is belief in noon. Evening will come whispering and shine a bright round moon."   -- From the children's book All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Nikki McClure. (I read it to the girls in a quieter moment from...

Brian Doyle says that religion, and religious practice-- like attending a specific church say-- is the boat believers and seekers choose to carry us over the sea of faith. It's harder to swim that alone, and even more challenging to do it without any kind of map or...

 Thanks to poet Emily Wall and the Skagway writers symposium last week, I'm learning to write haikus. You know, those short poems with typically-- and best to begin with this form-- three lines of five, seven, and five syllables each that you compose by counting on...

This is kind of a long thought, a column actually, in the Alaska Dispatch News today.  It's about the Klukwan artifacts returning to the new heritage and cultural center. But it's really about faith. I just returned from Skagway and the Northwords Writers Symposium,...

I have been full steam ahead on the garden, family, and preparing to head to Skagway for the Northwords Writers Symposium (today thru Saturday.) I'll hop a fast ferry from the cruise ship dock right after I do my reading on the ship from 4-5. I haven't packed. I...