We danced the other night, Katie and I. Lest you have any visions of grace and beauty running through your mind at that statement, let me dispel them right now: by “danced”, I mean I spun awkward circles in my living room, made fumbling sashay steps back and forth, and sang an off-key version of … Continue reading "Dancing, Despair and Hope"
Read MoreCategory: Family and Parenting
Of Infant Sleep and Answered Prayer
Note: This may seem like a standard new-parent-detailing-of-infant-sleep (or lack thereof) at first, but hang in there! There’s more to this post than that. In the past several weeks, Katie has decided that sleep is simply not for her. She has fought naps, arching her back and crying when I try to convince her to … Continue reading "Of Infant Sleep and Answered Prayer"
Read MoreA Glimpse of Love
We traveled for Thanksgiving, packed our suitcase and our little girl into the car and made the oh-so-very-long drive through the desert to my Grandpa’s house nine hours away. She did well, Katie did, sleeping a good portion of the way, only needing the calming presence of Mom or Dad in the backseat and the … Continue reading "A Glimpse of Love"
Read MoreFocusing on the Finish Line
I’m not usually one for cutesy sayings, for pithy quotes, for warm and fuzzy cliches – in fact, I generally scorn them. Though I often strive for contemplative and beautiful here in this space, my sense of humor tends toward the cynical and the sarcastic. (Case in point: I find this post and its follow-up … Continue reading "Focusing on the Finish Line"
Read MorePast Sorrows and Present Joys
She caught me in the church parking lot a few weeks back, waved at me as I was unlocking the car door, walked over to say hello. It had been some time since I’d seen her last and she had never met Katie, so she commented on her smile and her amazing infant Mohawk and … Continue reading "Past Sorrows and Present Joys"
Read MoreOn Airplanes and Crying Babies
The plane sat stationary at the gate, all but a few passengers boarded and in their seats. It was an evening flight that came at the end of a long day, and the air was heavy with annoyance, with exhaustion, with the frustration that we still weren’t on our way that so often accompanies travel … Continue reading "On Airplanes and Crying Babies"
Read MoreOn Wildfires and Cabinet Doors
We live in the forested foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, a vibrantly beautiful area full of towering pines and oaks and cedars. I love where we live; it means access to mountain lakes and shaded walking trails and easy backpacking trips in the summer. It means being able to ski and snowshoe and sled … Continue reading "On Wildfires and Cabinet Doors"
Read MoreBlackberries
“I love the way the blackberry bushes smell this time of year,” he said to me recently. I, having grown up in the high desert, wasn’t sure what he meant, and so I asked for clarification. He laughed, a short chuckle. “Huh. I don’t know. They smell like ripe blackberries.” * * * * * … Continue reading "Blackberries"
Read MoreA Broken Place
The world is a broken place. We need not look far to find evidence of this fact; it confronts us every day in our frailty, in our humanity, in the ways our own relationships falter and our own efforts fall short. Still, there are weeks when mankind’s desperate need for God seems to blazon itself … Continue reading "A Broken Place"
Read MoreOn Having it All
Someone wise once told me that middle age is really just the process of finishing what you started in your twenties and thirties. Opportunities come when you are young, he said, and your options seem unlimited. Every time you choose one thing, however, you’re saying no to all of the other things that might take … Continue reading "On Having it All"
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