Today, my friend is going to whoop it up with her family in preparation for baby #2. There will soon be a party, well-loved people, presents, and – most likely – popped balloons filling this joyful home. My gift is that I’m taking a book and going MIA for a few hours while the mom-in-waiting … Continue reading Wishes for baby
This morning I got up with the squirrels and cheered on my favorite triathlon partner as she ran a race in Manhappiness. I sped by Starbucks to get caffeine and the Sunday edition of the New York Times (a favorite splurge) and motored out to the lake sans GPS. The sun rose to my right as … Continue reading Always Plan A
Lingua wrecked is sort of a “lingua franca” of those who wrestle in life; a connecting language that links your experience to my experience and to the life of that guy on the curb by the liquor store. If lingua franca is a “bridge language, a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother … Continue reading Lingua Wrecked
I hopped on a bike the other day for a quick spin through the suburbs. Actually…”hopped” is a bit too optimistic. I got dressed, hydrated, found my helmet and key pouch, and pulled my bike into the landing in front of my door. Looks like I had a flat. In all of the great … Continue reading Just like riding a bike
The rain is rattling down the drainpipe and the whoosh of a steady shower fills the empty spaces. It is lovely. A crepe myrtle’s magenta puff-blooms bounce in the breeze and rain. The courtyard is quiet. Oh my soul. A good morning to seek a God who can only be seen when he makes himself … Continue reading When you have no Plan B
I’ll be moving soon and thanks to friends and a VERY PATIENT brother-in-law (a prince among men), I am going to pack my belongings, load them, and meet up with them in Manhattan, Kansas, in August. There is nothing like several moves in a short season to remind you that you don’t need (to pack … Continue reading Scarcity & abundance
I just finished WILD: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, by Cheryl Strayed. A friend had recommended this book many times over a few years. If you are easily offended, I wouldn’t recommend it to you. If, however, you’ve read Orange is the New Black, The Blind Side, Citizens of London, or Elie Wiesel’s, Night, or are … Continue reading Cheryl Strayed and Allie Hoped
I love the idea of recycling, upcycling, bicycling… It seems that the idea of “reduce, reuse, recycle, educate” has biblical parallels: one person’s trash becomes another’s transformed product. Artwork, household goods, industrial items, water, ideas, and more can be recycled…redeemed for another use. And then we get to offer the transforming story up for the … Continue reading Recycled
I’ve been missing something…something visceral; something that I have always – under every circumstance – been able to count on and draw upon. I’ve looked in closets, books, song, people, silence, and in the battered book of faith that I’ve been known to toss at doors and walls. It wasn’t there. Searched photographs, memory, … Continue reading Rise
Yesterday, as I looked for the puppy’s chewy-ball, I heard a horrible noise and looked in time to see a large touring motorcycle flip, fling, roll, and skid outside. I yelled to Madi to call 911 and raced to the mess with a bottle of water and a wobbly prayer. She called and by the … Continue reading When your life is wrecked
