When Your Candle Won’t Light During the Christmas Eve Service
My candle won’t light. Everyone leans over to help me; wax falls everywhere, and it’s becoming distracting. Every time someone tries to light my little candle, it burns for a moment and then flickers out. Come on little candle. Come on flame. Shine bright, girl. Do it! Nope. Finally, from out of nowhere, a complete […]
Loving Well During the Holidays
Today we remember what it means to love well. With every person we encounter, we ask God to help us, like Scripture describes in 1 Corinthians 13, to love well. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is […]
Snow Landscape
We take to the hills; it’s a sunny day with just enough snow to sled. Give a child even a little snow, and they figure out a way to slide on it. Yes, even here, there’s beauty. Winter offers her own kind. Even the brittle things rise up against a blue sky and make […]
Out There Alone
On two separate afternoons, I watch my youngest bundle up and go outside to play in the snow alone. Later, I find that she’s examining the snow, looking for animal tracks, and making her own sledding paths. Alone. She’s an extrovert, yet she has stuff to do out there by herself. I remember all […]
Mourning With Those Who Mourn in Newtown
A week ago, the world was different for all of us. This morning, I wake up deeply saddened again. I run my hand along my 7 year old’s soft cheek, and the same choking burn comes into my throat. I’m grieving with you, Newtown. But all week, I’ve had friends on Facebook and around town […]
Respect Yourself
Today, I volunteer at the 5th grade Colonial Crafts and Tea Party. In between helping children select a tea bag and examining the handmade candles, I notice all the signs put up around the classroom and in the hallway. One sign in particular really makes me think. It says, simply: Respect Yourself. I suddenly recall […]
Your Best Worst Grade
Today I realize how thankful I am that I earned a C+ in a Psycho-biology class at the University of Virginia in 1993. I wanted to be a doctor so badly. I cried. I thought Someone had made a huge Cosmic Error. I was supposed to be a doctor. All the grades in any science […]
Because I Was In the Bubble Bath
Right around 4:00 PM, I get the worst tension headache. I’m thinking about too much. So at 4:01, I stumble into the bathtub and turn on the hot–and I mean hot–water. I pour in whatever I can find: fizzle bath balls that smell like gardenia, tea tree oil, or shampoo I’m hoping will make bubbles. […]
Little Toes
Every time I look at my 7 year old, I feel my throat tighten and my eyes fill up. Yesterday, it was when I felt her little, warm toes that smell terrible after she takes her socks off. And I mean terrible. Those little toes! This morning, I’m thinking about all those parents who would […]
Build Your Life Around It
I’m reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, and I love his advice about writing. He writes this: “Ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and […]