Stick with Them
Our One-Eyed Cat A year ago, we brought home a sick cat with one eye. Remember how he didn’t purr, and then, after months of loving him, that deep, rich purr flowed out of him? We tell the story of “How Jack Got His Purr Back,” and we stay inspired to love what seems unlovable. […]
Losing Something You Can’t Recover
My student bursts into the classroom. “I’ve lost my paper! I didn’t save it properly and the whole thing is gone!” The exasperation in this student’s face is one I’ve seen many times before. My student can’t get that paper back. He stands in front of me, small and hopeless. I’ve been there. I remember […]
Breathing Deeply in the Froglet Phase
When you aren’t a tadpole anymore, but you still aren’t a frog, you’re a froglet. I’m reading a book about frogs to my children (how could we not after chasing a toad on Saturday?), and I read that, on the way to becoming a frog, the tadpole endures a curious in-between phase. The froglet phase. […]
The Love Stockpile
All afternoon, my daughter’s been riding around on her bike. She’s collecting acorns. She loads her pink basket and rides back to a rugged old tree–the one that’s really three trees converging into one trunk–and fills it with her acorn treasures. As autumn approaches, she’s thinking about the squirrels. What if she stockpiled, for days […]
When You Have to Wait for Something
I’ve been watching a chrysalis in my garden for a week now, and today a gorgeous butterfly emerged. She’s finally here! She’s a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. She waits for the right time. If it’s too cold, too windy, or too wet, she knows. She’ll proceed another day, another month, when conditions are perfect. […]
Small Flair in Hidden Places
I wake up with a horrible cold or horrible allergies–funny how the body responds the same to real or imagined threats against it–and dread the morning. I can’t find one box of tissues anywhere. Then, I realize I’ve lost my cell phone. Sniffling and pitiful, I wander to the basement just in case my cell […]
The Picture of the One-Eyed Cat
Here is my one-eyed cat. He likes to lounge around with his best friend, Snowflake, who I think looks like an upside down skunk. She’s the one who pulls the yellow rope around like a dog. Anyway, the point of this. . . Jack has one eye. He was a wild cat who injured himself […]
One Good Prayer
This morning, I had a few minutes before the walk to school, so I took out my prayer journal. What did I need? What did the neighbors need? Many things came to mind, but one thought kept recurring. I knew I might pray for prosperity, for health, for safety, for success, or for any […]
The Bad Day Mantra
As far as bad days go for a five year old, this one ranks high. While at her yearly check-up, she discovered she might need glasses, was told her spine might be slightly crooked, and, to make matters worse, endured two shots in both thighs. My job was to “restrain” her arms and legs as […]
When it Looks Like Chaos and Abandonment
My sassiest daughter was playing school with her big sister this morning before church. Apparently, they’d set up a whole imaginary classroom with imaginary students. All of sudden, the little one starts stomping around with her hands on her hips. “I can’t do imaginary anymore!” she yelled. I laughed out loud. Watching her with her […]