This post is 2 years in the making. I put it here, on this last day of March in remembrance of three things: 1. My mama's birthday is in March. 2. My life changed for good and forever in March 2020. 3. The actions and attitudes of the March sisters have always been a source of solace and inspiration for me. In the prelude to a scene that shifts everything in the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Jo March greets her older sister Meg. Jo's been away for some time and returned home to be with younger sister Beth who's languishing from the long-term effects of rheumatic fever. Jo presents Meg with a warm hug and...
Mom hands me a box with a gold and silver curiosity inside. We stand together on a Japanese hillside 32 autumns ago, ex-pats in a land my family calls home for longer than we intend. She speaks through frosty breath on a misty morning, a glimmer of sun glints behind her. I feel her anticipation and pay attention. "Ring the bell, Mariah. The sun is almost up." The remembrance is like a dream. I was 15. Mom was 7 years younger then than I am today. It will be 25 years before the slow crawl of dementia makes its way through the grooves and fissures of her brain. Her memory keen. Her thoughts deep. She has a blessing to bestow....
I have always been a person of the Book. A woman of the Word. Scriptural record? Spiritual speech? Native language. Mother tongue. The good news for me is that the good news of the gospel also came through classic literature, classic rock, nude art, folktales, folk music, Bible swears, and ritual recipes. All handed down in a lineage of love, trust, and sometimes skepticism. I mean, when you have a Biblical name, but your parents chose it from a musical about polygamy where Clint Eastwood belts out, “They Call the Wind Mariah,” you are bound to accept many paths to truth. And so, I often have. I was born and raised a Mormon girl. And I bore and raised all...
Most of you weren't here when I made our first post on Instagram, just over a year ago, and featured this cover pic with the following caption:“We did it. Found a space in the city. Chose a name. Curated a handful of enchanted items, and we’re getting ready to greet the season with you. Watch for our next giveaway.” The truth about “the Shop” is that I found it because I had recently separated from my husband, and this space provided living AND working quarters for me. It was amid a global pandemic, quarantine, 2020, my 46th year of life and 28th year of marriage. I had just walked beyond the chapel doors of the faith I was born and...
