I’ll Just Stand Here
I’m talking with my friend, and she reminds me of what it means to just stand by your friends. You quietly, faithfully, and prayerfully carry her burdens. You can’t solve anything or say the right thing. So you just stand there with her. Sometimes, you hug her. As I’m talking, my dramatic kitty rolls over […]
It’s Happening If You Look Closely
Despite all evidence to the contrary (snow, bitter cold mornings, and gloomy skies), a new season is arriving. It is. I can tell. I see the green buds among the tangled vines that border the forest. I find a robin, and I even spy a new nest forming deep in the bushes. That’s the whole […]
My Favorite Love Letter: Keep Writing or Become the Poem
I often quote Lilian Sandburg to encourage student writing. I remember exactly where I was standing in Carl Sandburg’s home in Flat Rock when I read Lilian’s words on a postcard to her discouraged husband. The National Park Service captures the exchange in these words: “Once, during the early years of their marriage, when he […]
When Your Favorite Memory Actually Never Happened
I’m teaching memoir writing to my students, and I instruct them to choose a “tiny moment” to recount for the class. Just a few nights before, I share with my friend about my memoir lessons, and he says, “My favorite memory actually never happened.” He explains what he means. I encourage him to write the […]
I Couldn’t Stop Eating It (So I Made More)
I’m on a mission to gain health. As I stood before a table of food choices at our Easter potluck, I noted the quinoa and mushroom salad. I haven’t eaten quinoa in years (pronounced KEEN-wah). It’s a grain-like Superfood (it’s a complete protein, high in iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and calcium) that cooks like rice or […]
“Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?” Annie Dillard
As I think about Easter, I recall Annie Dillard’s quote about the power Christians have in the name of Jesus. Lately I’ve been thinking about how little I understand it and how little I invoke it. What would happen if I did? What would happen if I lived my life in daily resurrection power? The […]
For Best Results
I’ve been cleaning the grout on my kitchen floor all day long. With an aching back and knees, I take a hot bath with some fancy bubble bath that’s supposed to soothe everything with lavender and chamomile. I turn the bottle around, and it says in bold print, “For best results, breathe deeply.” I sink […]
Some Spring Kitchen Whimsy: Let Children Paint the Silverware Holder
We’re Spring Cleaning around here, and as I clean the crumbs from the silverware holder, I notice all the beautiful white paint has chipped off. I want to buy another one to freshen up the kitchen, but my husband reminds me we can just paint each section with fresh white paint. At the same time, […]
We’re Thinking Less; He’s Thinking More
Our church is studying Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Claude King, and I’m struck again by the simple truth that God wants to give generously, far beyond our meager requests of Him. Often in Scripture, someone asks for one thing, and God gives another. It’s because God wants to give more. He goes beyond. […]
Chop It Off and Start Fresh
After several years of sassy side ponytails, braids, buns, curls, headbands, fun chalk color, feathers, and clip-on extensions, my fashionista daughter’s hair needed some serious repair. We go to the salon today, and the stylist diagnoses the hair using the words breakage, damage, brittle, dry, and worn out. “Let’s start fresh and let it all […]