*This blog has been written by a guest writer, who, despite my most earnest cajoling, remained firm in their desire to remain anonymous. Please feel free to share any encouraging thoughts generously.
It’s the morning after the hailstorm. Tending to a garden full of broken plants… talking to them –broken and bedraggled–cleaning up all of […]
I’ve always wondered how it is that one can feel beautiful, but not pretty. The word occurs to me in a different way as I’m driving this morning. Beauty-full. Full of beauty. Beautiful is a state of being, whereas pretty is simply external. Perhaps this epiphany is old news to everyone except me, but as
Beautiful but Not Pretty Read More »
I sat in my car yesterday morning, mindlessly staring out my window at the elementary school playground and waiting for my daughter to emerge from our local coffee shop with two steaming morning lattes. Involuntarily, my eyes focused in on a mother walking her son into school–hand in hand. At once, my chest constricted, and
The Interconnectedness of Grief and Aliveness Read More »
Several years ago, it occurred to me that I was living a life I did not wish to be living. I was stressed, angry, and completely un-peaceful. I was constantly rushing about frantically, driven by the confines of time as dictated by my calendar. In short, my life felt out of control, or in other
To REspond or DEspond? That is the Question. Read More »
Every day I pick up the kids from school, I pass a massive carcass decomposing along the side of the road. Maybe a cow or a bear? I’m not sure. But the thing I find fascinating—and oh-so- delightful—is that it has remained on the side of the road long enough to rot. No well-intentioned citizen
Guts and Poop and Gray Hair…Oh My! Read More »
“We fail to understand the Divine, not because we aren’t able to extend our concepts far enough, but because we don’t know how to begin close enough.” –Abraham Herschel- August 15, 2022 I took the kids to eat at a fast food restaurant yesterday after church. The Cracker Barrel had waiting lines out the door,
Heaven Stooped Low Read More »
*Disclaimer and warning: Do not read if you are easily offended. There is nothing admirable in the words that follow. My parenting skills are abhorrently MIA, and my actions are questionable at best. There is no point, no glimmering lesson. It is simply a stark, bare naked sliver of reality, written mainly for me. It
July 23, 2022 – Part 1: Regarding Fear Yesterday, Arin and I spent an hour-and-a-half hiking up and down the grassy knolls of our new property and exploring the winding ravines that snake through the bottom of what I’ve secretly labeled “the scary forest.” Right off, we saw a coyote big enough to be a
The Chains That Bind Us Read More »
July 5, 2022 I am mid-stride in the kitchen when the darkness hits. Without warning, it rolls in as quickly as the afternoon thunderstorms, although my darkness feels much more smothering and muggy. Siphoning my breath and dousing my previous exuberance, the darkness accosts me, demanding an immediate account for my actions: What have you
The Sinewy Connections of Life, Death, Longing, and Fear Read More »
July 3, 2022 “Your Aspens look diseased,” my mom offhandedly remarks from the breakfast table overlooking one of our many new-to-us Aspen groves. “You could get an arborist to come up here and take a look,” she suggests. Instantly, my chest tightens with stress—yet another expense, one more item on my to-do list, and my