The Champagne Toast Takes on Extra Special Meaning
When my parents first met the man who would become my husband, they ordered a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck and waited for news of a proposal.
Vanessa Hua and her husband, Marc Puich, on their wedding day in 2004.Credit.Julie Mikos
By Vanessa Hua
When my father ordered champagne, it baffled my boyfriend, but not me.
We’d been dating for about six months, and my parents were meeting him for the first time in 2001 at brunch at a French brasserie in San Francisco. It was the first time they’d ever met any of my boyfriends.
Vanessa Hua December 31, 2020Updated: December 31, 2020, 4:00 pm
On New Year’s Day, Vijaya Nagarajan will make a
kolam, a rice flour design, on the front threshold of her home.
Vijaya Nagarajan, author of “Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in Southern India, An Exploration of the Kolam.” Photo: Lee Swenson
Growing up whether in her ancestral village in southern India, a government flat in New Delhi or a townhouse in suburban Maryland she and her family celebrated each Hindu festival. They’d wake up early, then bathe and massage coconut oil and turmeric paste onto their bodies. Washing it off left a smooth, golden glow. And her mother drew the patterns before sunrise; the kolam is performed daily by Tamils to signify auspiciousness and a wish for the well-being of the family, the household and the world.
Vanessa Hua December 24, 2020Updated: December 24, 2020, 6:56 pm
Zara Stone’s sister, Lisa, was born on Christmas Day.
“Every year, my sister would point to the trees and the lights and the Santas and tell everybody that all these decorations and celebrations were for her,” Stone wrote via email. She’s the author of “The Future of Science Is Female: The Brilliant Minds Shaping the 21st Century.” “We grew up in London, and every holiday season, my parents took us to see the holiday lights on Oxford Street. We walked up and down, admiring the twinkles and sparkles that eclipsed the road, gorging on roasted chestnuts, and gawking at the elaborate holiday displays in the windows of Selfridges and Hamleys.”
Vanessa Hua December 10, 2020Updated: December 10, 2020, 7:53 pm
A Hannukah menorah at Table and Teaspoon in San Francisco. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle 2016
In her poem “You’re Invited,” Lynn Axelrod reflects upon 2020 as “
kintsugi mending time” referring to the Japanese art in which broken pottery gets repaired with lacquer, mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. It highlights and honors the cracks as a part of its history, not something to be replaced or covered up.
“We’ll sprinkle gold dust/ between ghost hugs/… celebrate reconnecting and the impermanence/ of our present malady,” the Point Reyes Station resident wrote.
The poem was among many I received from readers following a recent call for submissions. Thanks for giving me a chance to read your inspiring verses, whose common themes reflect gratitude toward nature and essential workers and hopes for brighter times ahead. Let these words offer solace while coronavirus cases