When did the madness begin? We often ask when we discover a situation that has spun out of control. For me, it began with one little brass swan, delicate yet substantial, her head dipped in elegant repose. I couldn’t wait to get her cleaned up. So I bought a special polish, and I went to […]
Category: Courage
When you’re in deep waters
We weren’t planning to go far. We were merely teenagers, full of the vitality that the beach seems to bring, with a dash of spreading-our-wings sprinkled in for good measure. My sisters, my cousin Joy, and I hopped onto our intertubes, dodged the waves, and swam out beyond the surf. We were free! The sun […]
Sometimes our job is not to figure it out, but to follow
It was one of those moments. You may know the kind – where you were going along just fine, and all of a sudden, you come up against an obstacle that seems insurmountable. And you are shaken to the core. I was a little girl, playing at the park with my sisters and cousins. I […]
At the mercy of chaos no longer
It began with one resounding gong. Then another. Which led to yet another. In the dreamy haze of 1 a.m. sleep, I tried to hold on. Another loud clang, a sound that seemed to go bone deep, and I felt sleep lifting from me. I tried to claw my way back to the blessed rest […]
A tale of two grocery carts
I always came prepared. I had my shopping list on my phone, organized by aisle and my usual pattern of strolling through Target. I dutifully checked each box as I dropped each item into the cart, and even when I veered off course to peek at home goods or other fun things, I always came […]
What visits with Grandma taught me about the power of connection
School days were hectic for our family back then, with four kids all involved in sports, but our Wednesdays were sacred. We had to stay after school for practices or games every other day of the week, but on Wednesdays, no sports teams had practices or games. We looked forward to Wednesday every single week. […]
Musings on Jonah, Part Two: God’s provisions, the lovely and the not-so-lovely
[Continued from Musings on Jonah, Part One: Is it right for you to be angry?] Two things I love most from this passage: God is always teaching us and God is always providing for us. He is teaching Jonah here. He used the example of the plant that made Jonah so happy when it kept […]
On free returns and redemption
A couple weeks ago, I ordered my first pair of Doc Martens. A 90s teen to the core, I always adored Docs, but alas! I never owned a pair. And now, at age 44 with very flat feet, I find that I need some extra arch support. So I figured, why not cushion my aging […]
Lessons from a daisy
She won it in an art contest at school: a packet of daisy seeds. Disregarding the fact that her mother is an inadvertent plant killer, my daughter was determined to nurture these seeds into full growth. So she followed the directions on how to plant the seeds in a small cup, which she painted to […]
Under construction
My daughter’s room has been through nearly as many changes as she has over the years. From a darling ladybug/bee/butterfly nursery to a pink princess theme to a transitional stage where she began to despise pink and love mint green. It was then, when she was in seventh grade, that we repainted her walls a […]
Recent Comments