Sometimes as a writer, you feel the words form on your tongue before you even understand the sentence end or point. You just start moving the pen, pressing the keys… Then—there it is. It comes. It’s what you needed like that touch you wait for from your lover and now you have it. You fill. Is this anything less than miracle? The words that come are not for us alone,.. Read More
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” ― Mother Teresa It would be a fool’s way to come to the end of my day despising the little things, the little ways. But I do. It would be a sorry sin to say, “no thank You” to the adventure of diaper changing, feet washing, tear kissing or frigidair stocking, thinking somehow an adventure “out there”.. Read More
“There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own, but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord.” —Architecture of Time in The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel I was dreaming awake last night of these things. Today I feel I am sleep walking awake trying to hold onto them. I hope.. Read More
Our hands are busy. I know that. I get it. But we’ve all got time. Time to stop. Time to act. Time to return. We’ve all got today. Time to remember. And time to see what is present. I know it often feels like we don’t know what we can do. Little us. Especially us moms. Our hands. Our times. Our lives. Spoken for. But it is in THAT that.. Read More
From exploring Corbin, KY (Cumberland Falls) to driving through the Appalachians in TN (Cherokee, Pisgah, and Great Smoky Mountains National Forests) to NC to exploring the wonder of the OCEAN on the Atlantic coast of South Carolina to exploring Charlotte, NC “the Queen City” (that WOW reminded me of Overland Park, KS) to a quick overnight in Knoxville, TN so that we could go exploring Big South Fork National River.. Read More
I’m sitting at the chiropractor’s office and it’s the stillest I’ve been all day since that one minute of quiet wakefulness this morning when I made the regrettable decision of turning my alarm off. Instead, I chose the always reliable yet not-quite-calm second alarm, aka “the children”. Today’s ring tone sounded like this, “Mama! We can’t find Danny!”. Yep, from horizontal to vertical and moving before they could say that.. Read More
Yeah, it’s true. I laughed out my nose when the three year old lunged across the table to steal food from his older brother’s plate deft like a praying mantis after it’s cricket. Seriously—the way he moved was impressive and spontaneous and I could NOT help it. Yeah, it’s true, I sighed at first when: 8 year old: “mommy.” me: “just a minute, I’m in the middle of a.. Read More
All I gotta do is share publicly about my prayer life to be driven to my knees. All I gotta do is talk about my kids’ relationships with each other to begin to feel desparate that they’ll never talk to each other once grown. All I gotta do is try and I’ll be sure to face a challenge. It’d be easier not to but, “You must do the thing you.. Read More
“The essence of a thing is always elusive, hidden. The dream of art and prayer is to come nearer, even to slip through to dwell for awhile…” ~ John O’Donohue, Beauty the Invisible Embrace
It would be too simple to say or think that all I do as a parent to nurture my children through the wilderness of sibling relations is head for the woods. Yet it is a very powerful, meaning filled way I can put feet on my prayers. And it’s not just for the kids, it’s for me too. Maybe me most of all? It’s at that mind numbing point (I.. Read More