August 2013

posted on August 27, 2013

So, I've noticed recently that I've been dodging the "How are you?" question. Usually that is easily done, as it is asked in passing. You know, like catching someone just as they are entering or exiting the bathroom: "How are you?" "Fine! Great! How are you?"...close door.

It's a polite question sometimes simply asked as an addendum to "Hello."

But sometimes people really mean it. Sometimes they are sincerely asking and want to know. You can recognize these people because of the way they remain standing in your presence, looking at you with interested...

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An Ocean Held

posted on August 21, 2013

Dear ones,

I share the following for all those who are letting their children go further into their own lives. Into Kindergarten. Into the dorm. Into the next season of their lives. I share the following from my heart that doesn't quite yet know how to reconcile itself with the term "empty nest."

This is a poem I wrote last year before our son Luke left for college. I know I wrote about change last week as well, and I have loved your responses. But this remains a deep and tender time for me and for so many...I speak from that place again. With hope. With love. For all of us that ache...for what we have had and have to let go of. For what we have longed for and never known. For the questions unanswered and the...

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"Hellos" are Better

posted on August 14, 2013

My youngest son and his girlfriend are making us dinner. In my kitchen. Right now! And I don’t have to do ANYTHING!!!! I’m not even going to set the table! Oh, okay, fine, I’ll offer to set the table. But that’s it! No salad to make or anything. I’m so happy.

Plus it’s risotto they’re making, and I never ever make risotto because you have to stand there and stir it for like ever, and being a patient woman is not one of my strengths. I think eating risotto that someone else made may be one of my strengths, though. I’ll find out soon.

So, there are benefits to having them get older. I’m trying to be positive here. My middle son moved away last week. My older son and his wife...

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Tell Them

posted on August 09, 2013

I had the privilege yesterday to sit with a friend at the hospital in the “Surgery Waiting Room.” Okay, that is holy ground if ever there is any. The emotions in the place are thick. The memories for me in the place are rampant. Raw fear. Blind hope. Belief revealed.

I stood apart as a doctor conferred with the family of a woman still in surgery. I couldn’t and didn’t try to hear what he was saying but I couldn’t miss the sound of agony in the young woman’s voice as she asked the doctor to “Tell her I love her!” The kind physician went back to continue the surgery after hugging the young woman and then she collapsed into the arms of the one next her, her sobs deep and unabated.

...

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Golden Moments

posted on August 01, 2013

I think there’s only so much beauty a soul can hold. We vacationed in the majestic Tetons this July. Again. And again, God came and met me there. It is for me a thin place. A place where the distance between Heaven and Earth, between my not knowing God and my knowing him, is whisper thin.

One day while there, I wanted—no, I needed—to just go and lie down on my bed. Maybe read. Maybe just rest but certainly rest my eyes. I was filled; I could not drink in any more beauty. Not for a while, at least. In my beloved humanity, I can only hold so much.

But then I rest or forget and become thirsty for some more. I am, after all, a leaky cup. And on this trip, this vacation to hallowed ground where we have gone each...

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