Welcome to Houston, the most ethnically diverse city in the U.S.Our people are loyal and loud. The brutal heat, constant traffic, and devastating hurricanes unite us in deep and important ways. And so, when it comes to welcoming visitors, we do it with confidence.Welcome to the very best big city in the world. Here’s what...Continue Reading
The other day a memory popped up of you on your first day of Preschool. I was struck by how your first-day grin has not changed. Back then—and on the first day of eighth grade—your smile looks the same: excited, silly, anxious, and grinning like you have a secret. That was twelve years ago and,...Continue Reading
When the Astros WON THE WORLD SERIES, our city went crazy with joy and relief. Thanks to Hurricane Harvey, the past two months had been about loss in our city. After so many days of only soggy carpet and demolished homes, Houston now had trophies and homeruns. We were ready to party. So, we did what people always do when the monumental, the...Continue Reading
As I’m writing this, a bright yellow trash crane is making its way down our neighborhood. It’s finally hauling away the Harvey Heaps from the front of the flooded homes on the other side of our subdivision. The insides of our neighbors’ beautiful homes have been gutted. All of their stuff—the broken cabinets, the bloated...Continue Reading
When Hurricane Harvey dumped 50 inches of rain on our Houston suburb of Katy, everything I had secretly feared happened. We didn’t sleep night after night because of tornadoes; we watched with terror as the homes of many (many!) dear friends flooded . . . and with no flood insurance; our home was in a...Continue Reading
Yesterday’s historic flooding in Houston showed a lot about our city—that we have too much concrete and not enough ditches, that Houstonians are the most fantastic helpers, and that weather can still paralyze our beehive highway system. For our family, the day off revealed something about us. It took until the afternoon, but we finally...Continue Reading
The kids and I have spent the first two weeks of the summer in the Memorial area, where we used to live. Everyday I dropped them off at camp at Christ Memorial Lutheran and then worked on my book in a Starbucks. The Memorial area is also called the Energy Corridor, which is where most...Continue Reading
In Subrubia, the good summer camps and VBSs fill up around Spring Break. This past April our summer calendar was still wide open, and I still hadn’t gotten around to signing the kids up for some activities. Just when it was time to panic, my friend Barb, the director of our old church, called. She...Continue Reading
