A Mediterranean Brush Off
Apricot bits pair with creamy yellow couscous pearls, tumbling off Daniel’s spoon and speckling his chin. Mediterranean food rains down on his wooden chair and the linoleum floor below. “As soon as you’re done, we’ll play outside,” Morgan urges. “Mom, I done!” he asserts. “No, eat a few more bites,” I tell him. He bounces…
Conspiring Teens Plot Joy (Want their Secret?)
The teens exchanged glances, eyes flaring, shoulders keeping time with the rising drums. “Ready?” was the unspoken question, as grins split open further to sing, “You are hooooooooly.” Spiked blonde hair rose above a striped teal and brown shirt, and shorter brown-haired male in tan sang out with abandon, in a line of young men…
Tacos, Rescues, and Lovers
We pass the white plastic coffee carafe around the room, twelve women with Bibles splayed out, pens raised. During the video presentation, we fill in blanks, scribble notes, and sip from styrofoam cups. When the lights are flipped on again, we laugh, ask questions, and discuss the material from our week’s study. This room that…
Friendships, Flourescent Lights and Free-Throw Lines (Guestposting at Breakfast in Moscow)
Atop creaky honey-colored bleachers in middle school, Sara Hepner* crushed a wad of chewing gum onto my hair, smushing it far into the strands. The basketball game of high school boys raged on below us, and foul horns bellowed. Lanky high school boys lined up at the free-throw line, and my fingers crawled behind my…
“The Sky is Low…”
“The sky is low, the clouds are mean, A traveling flake of snow Across a barn or through a rut Debates if it will go. A narrow wind complains all day How some one treated him; Nature, like us, is sometimes caught Without her diadem.” (Emily Dickinson) Laying low this weekend after a great youth…
Dentist Trips and How to Love Parenting
The chimes blow hard, and yellow leaves carpet my lawn, the gaps in the naked trees revealing more of my neighbors’ yards than I have seen yet. This uncharted territory of autumn in a new house makes everything fresh this year. At the dentist office this morning, four Dougans crowd into the elevator, pass under…
“Plotting Murder?”
Dark dirt mounds litter my yard, evidence of a mole or gopher infestation. Mini mountains crest my lawn like volcanic islands being born. My landscaping beds, garden flowers, and plants have been frequent summer snacks for the rodent population. In a fit of murderous critter-rage last night, I spotted two entry tunnels – a rare…
Of Football and Family
Ocher leaves flit across lawns and scrape streets. Homecoming teens flaunted crimson and black school colors, and students of all sizes bravely decked cheeks with ebony under-eye sun glares. High school parade floats careened down narrow suburban streets to lawn-chaired spectators. Tootsie rolls, suckers and tough gum wads crashed to the ground, causing gentle riots.…
A Celestial Slant on Cowboys
In a grove of glossy dark evergreens at the bottom of a ravine, red, brown and white horses congregated and side-stepped on the rocky ground. Like a scene from a wrangling cowboy western, a man astride a red horse leaned low to listen. Galloping in from the north, south, east and west, his reconnaissance men…
Of Gardens and Churches
Falling silently and nearly invisible, the rain soaks deep into the grass. Slow, steady, unchanging. The effect at first is almost negligible. What good could come from this small amount? But subtly quietly, it continues. Water seeps into brittle grass, bounces off grey weathered deck planks, and into freshly dug raspberry beds. The soil blackens…