What You Have That We Don’t
It’s not that I was ignoring him. Photo: Anne Ostsee, Creative Commons, cc license I looked up as he said my name, and I smiled and nodded. “Mom? See the sunrise? Look.” My six year old Daniel pointed out the dining room deck window. “Yeah, I see it! So pretty, huh?” I grinned and looked…
From White-Capped Mountainous Men
Ahh, I have missed being here with you! Photo credit to my cousin, Naomi W. Sipping dark roast coffee in my favorite brown and navy mug, I’m pulled up close to my roll top wooden desk and smiling as I think of you. You: my online community of bloggers in these growing friendships across the…
“I See Past the Teeth,” She Said
“God, is there any way…?” and my prayer slipped out as snow crackled and crunched under the car tires. Pulling into the dentist lot, I pocketed my keys, locked the door, and shifted black knit mittens higher up my wrists. A winter wind howled and whipped up snow in swirls around me. In the lobby…
It’s All About WHO You Know? (When Our Kids Lead the Way)
Photo Credit: Rudolf Vlcek, Creative Commons, cc license “I’ll pray, Mom,” he chirps, my six and a half year old standing on the frayed sewing bench that is my desk chair. “Thanks, Daniel. I would love that. Morgan, John, will you pray with us too?” “Sure.” They lope over good-naturedly. My broad-shouldered son looms tall…
To the Women and Daughters Beside You and Me
“This was Anja?” Photo: Andrew Iverson, Creative Commons, cc license Bouncing jaunty shoulders to big band swing, her blonde curl ringlets dipped and swayed too. In a crowd of several hundred, we gaped in surprise and shook heads in mirthful laughter. Our reserved Finnish high schooler had a larger-than-life dramatic side of her that we…
The Promise that’ll Change Your Week
Hijacking my attention, I no longer heard his voice as the speaker continued, my thoughts captive by a sentence underlined in stubby pencil on the page. Photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simoes, Creative Commons cc, license Sitting on blue upholstered interlocking chairs this Sunday, I read and re-read the verse: God is greater than our hearts, and…
What God Would Whisper to You Under the Table
We’re learning about “Cuh Cuh cookies” and “Cuh Cuh carving” with the consonant C today, my six year old and I. Reviewing some kindergarten phonics rules, we huddle at the end of the map-topped cherry-wood table, him laboriously tracing C’s and D’s with pencil in stubby fingers, and me sipping coffee and cheering him on.…
When Paris, America, and Worlds Collide
He’s standing at the window, staring out through falling snow and I can see the worry biting deep into his lip. Shoulders hunched, he leans forehead against the cold third-story glass and peers across the street and down the block. Rising blue and silver in winter twilight, the French high school gazes back at him…
The Easiest, Almost-Not-Fair Resolution We’re Dying For This Year
Blueberries swell inside vanilla cake batter, creeping higher in the square metal pan. The oven and refrigerator hiss and hum a rumbling life behind me. My family’s voices lilt and lift throughout the house, readying for a New Year’s Eve party out with church friends in an hour. Photo: Mike, Creative Commons, cc license Toppling…
A Dukes of Hazard Morning
I wasn’t expecting the Dukes of Hazard. Photo: DatarkNZ, Creative Commons, cc license On a misty, balmy Minnesota morning, we walked up and down a concrete forest of balsam and fraiser firs, inhaling the giddy pine fragrance. “This one,” Mark declared, pointing to a chubby fraisier fir in the second row of leaning trees. Daniel…