Tomoe /toe-MOE-eh/ Hasegawa is an eleven-year-old girl in seventeenth-century Japan who aspires to be courageous like the samurai. After Christianity is banned and persecutions intensify, Tomoe’s Catholic community flees to a remote island. They are pursued by the regional deputy who wishes to protect the nation from the corruption of foreign ideas. Tomoe’s many attempts…
Coming into marriage, my husband and I had very different experiences with hospitality. I grew up in a socially “quiet” family. My parents’ friends never stopped by unannounced (or practically ever) and I can only recall one memory of our family hosting a party. We only saw our relatives every few years because they lived…
My piano teacher slid onto the piano bench beside me, but neither of us touched the keys. The studio was unnaturally quiet. My weekly lessons were usually filled with simple sonatas and easy etudes as Hallee encouraged me, an adult beginner, to relax my hands and lean into the music. But that fall afternoon in…