All the Soups
One blessing of my kidney stone surgery involves the delicious soup that friends brought over for dinner. Mexican Tortilla Soup. Butternut Squash. Autumn Vegetable Soup. Chicken Noodle. Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice. We have snow flurries in Pennsylvania at the moment, so the day feels particularly perfect for a steaming bowl of butternut squash soup. […]
Divine Designs
I decided to start reading Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest daily devotionals again. I haven’t really read Chambers since my college days. At the time, Chambers’ words often felt too heady and demanding. I often read his entries and felt more discouraged than encouraged. I was young in my faith and didn’t know […]
All is Well
The surgery went well, and the urologist surgeon removed the kidney stone! Yeah! Wednesday, the stent comes out. More yeah! I’m so thankful. Now I’ll drink more lemon water every day of my life. I never want another kidney stone. I feel stronger for enduring the pain and facing my fear of surgery and pain […]
An Answer to Prayer
The hospital called, and someone canceled a surgery. This means I received a surgery spot for tomorrow to remove this enormous kidney stone! What an answer to prayer! I might have had to wait for two or three more weeks and then miss Thanksgiving. I will keep you posted, but tomorrow might just be the […]
The Gift Always Coming
This morning, I read Henri Nouwen’s thoughts on prayer in his book Turn My Mourning Into Dancing. A few of my English professor friends are reading this book together. I read this with joy: “When we pray we admit that we don’t know what God is going to do, but remember that we will never […]
The Golden Autumn
I wait all year for the blue sky, the golden leaves, and the perfect autumn weather to crunch in the falling leaves.
Acceptance
I’m learning to accept reality and not push against what I cannot change. It’s liberating. For example, I deeply value efficiency. But when you have a kidney stone and a stent in place, it’s not going to be a quick process. There’s surgery to remove the stone and then, a week or so later, another […]
I Can’t Do Anything Today
The Italian Mama tells me this lesson that it took her 10 years to learn: “Don’t push yourself. You need to rest to recover. It’s a hard lesson to learn.” Recover! Rest! Don’t push! After this past surgery and while I await the next one to remove this enormous kidney stone, I’m on this couch. […]
My Writing Day Turned Into a Night and Day at the Hospital
My plans for a beautiful writing day ended at 1:00 AM when an 8 mm kidney stone announced itself. What followed? Pain! Pain till the ER gave me relief. Then a scan, then surgery to place a stent. Now, I wait to make sure there’s no infection, and then another surgery. The day is almost […]
How to Plan a Writing Day
When a writing deadline approaches, you might want to think about planning writing days. I tell students to plan a writing day like it’s an event. You need everything you would need at any other event including a chosen location and special food and music. When you’re at your scheduled event, you do the thing you’re […]