I grew up with a little divided bank—there were three little spots for giving, saving, and “fun”, and one big spot for “goal money.” But my thrifty young self put a label over the “10% savings” and turned it into “10% goal”, allotting the 70% for savings. (The savings label has long fallen off, but…
“I get the idea that you like green,” the painter said when he stepped into our house and surveyed our green bathroom walls, our blue-green kitchen walls, and the green paint on his hands. “This color can actually look more blue, depending on the time of day,” I laughed. “But yes, we like green.” Green…
“Do you remember where you bought this CD?” he asks, in the midst of the after-dinner cleanup and pickup. No, I can’t remember where I bought it. (We decided it must have been used off the internet, with the hole punched through the bar code.) But I remember why. It has that song on it. …
I want to get beyond just the surface in my relationships. It’s easier to discuss general ideas than my ideas. It’s easier to talk about other people than my life. It’s easier to say “fine” than “struggling” when asked, “How are you?” But I want to get beyond the general to the specific. Beyond the…
The ordinary, everyday brings me to tears sometimes with its very routine-ness. The over and again, rinse and repeat, wake up and do it all over again laundry and dishes and what to eat. The toys that will always get strewn everywhere and be tripped over. And the girlish joyful exuberance that will wake a…
Fifteen years ago today, I met my very best friend. No, we didn’t talk that day—we were young and shy, just days past our thirteenth birthdays. But we listened to our parents as we all walked those boardwalks through Yellowstone—away from the Riverside Geyser where we met, towards Old Faithful itself. We all thrilled at…
Growing older makes it hard to say goodbye. They are two years old and three years old. And it’s only hard to say goodbye because they don’t understand time or why people have to live so far away or how long it is until Christmas. He and I are getting oh-so-close to thirty. And it’s…
For the last issue of New Attitude Magazine, I convinced my parents to let me put my name in the pen pal ads. I wanted some “real” pen pals—”real” as in girls I’d never met before. It was such a thrill getting those first letters in the mail box. Reading the hearts of those dear…
They think I’m beautiful in my pink plaid pajama pants. The same ones I bought at Old Navy at least six years ago, and obviously haven’t worn in a while, due to the exclamations from my daughters over them this morning. My husband thinks I’m beautiful in the bigger-than-I’ve-ever-bought-before American Eagle jeans and a tank…
Still. “Be still.” “Peace, be still.” “Be still and know that I am God.” Still? When am I still? My hands are busy holding, doing. My mind is busy thinking, planning. My ears are busy listening, trying not to hear. But He commands me, just as He commanded the waves that day—“be still.” I step…
Dearest, Every year about this time, it all comes flooding back to me. The reality of how close I came to the loss hits me full force. The loss of you…my then-newlywed husband, my best friend, the father of our then-future children (whom I already knew would have reddish blond curls!). You laugh when I…
Can gratefulness be measured? Can a once-widowed woman’s appreciation for new love be compared to the joy of a late-blooming romance? Can a woman whose quiver is full be any more grateful than a woman who finally gives birth to a long-awaited child? Does having little make one more grateful for the little things than…
The End.
The End.