Wait! Where?
This morning, my oldest daughter cries out to her sister, “I’ll race you!” “OK!” the youngest one says, and they’re off! Suddenly, she stops and demands, “Wait! Where are we going, anyway?” She has her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side. I’m washing breakfast dishes, and I think of the […]
A Most Extraordinary Piece of Art
An incredible artist, Ted Cantrell, sends my family a piece of his original artwork for our home. From the moment I remove this piece from its shipping box, I know I’m holding something extraordinary in my hands. This Texan Artist once found an old tree that had grown up through a barbed wire fence on […]
Gingersnap Tea and Almond Biscotti
Two days ago, I purchase mini almond biscotti for no reason at all. You can’t just eat biscotti, you have to dip it in tea (at least that’s how I do it since I don’t like coffee in the afternoon). So if you have biscotti, you simply must have tea. If you have tea, you […]
The Interview Game
My youngest daughter tells me today that her friends at school never ask her anything about herself. “I ask about them, but they don’t ask about me,” she explains. “I know what you mean,” I tell her. “Hardly anyone knows how to ask good questions of one another. We might need to learn how to […]
When She Steadies You
Today I’m roller skating with my oldest daughter, and I realize that for the first time in all these years, she’s steadying me. It’s one of those moments when I think about parenting differently. I think about the relationship between mothers and their almost teenage daughters. I flail my arms, grab on to her hand, […]
Read and Be Inspired: 8-Year-Old Dresses Up as Her Greatest Insecurity
My friend calls from Texas to update me on her life and children. She shares this incredible story and gives me permission to share it (and the photos) with you. Her sweet daughter has had to wear hearing aids these past few years. This little girl doesn’t want anybody talking about them; she hides her […]
So You Could See It Better
I leave my classroom today, and I see purple berries. In a simple moment of gratitude, I thank God for stark landscapes in late autumn that serve to showcase color I might have missed otherwise. I might have missed these, but today, I couldn’t possibly. All seems stark and bland on purpose; it might just […]
Dirty Kitchens and Unmade Beds
Today, I write for three hours straight. I don’t empty the dishwasher, make beds, or think about what I’m going to make for dinner. Something has to fall by the wayside to make room for art. I remember Annie Dillard’s wonderful quote about writing. She writes: “Let the grass die. I let almost all […]
What Gets Set in Motion
I love putting things in my crock pot, leaving for campus, and returning hours later to dinner. The crock pot performs this secret work all day–that secret ministry–while I go about my regular life. I set it in motion, and it continues all day long. You set things in motion in the morning, and they […]
Miriam’s Tambourine: The Song You Would Sing
This morning I read in Exodus 15:20: “Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing. Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted’.” Something about this woman challenges me today. She takes up a tambourine and […]