I Didn’t Want a Different Dream
My friend and fellow author, Jolene Philo, runs a helpful website dedicated to special needs kids and their caretakers. I’ve read all her books and have found her knowledge extremely helpful on my own journey in caring for special needs kids that led to my own special needs. After 21 years (this month) of caring […]
Pieces of Eden: How to Find Joy in the Midst of Grief
This morning, Nick found the limp body under a young pine by the horse riding arena. Rose stood at a distance, guilty, while Nick examined the fawn. Lifeless. Still warm. How can a dog I love so much do such a terrible thing? We’re not in Eden anymore. I am sad. The poor doe who […]
Loving and Forgiving Our Mothers this Mother’s Day
Hi Friends! I’m over at Jolene Philo’s Different Dream blog today for a special Mother’s Day piece I wrote. Hope you’ll join me there (link below). You won’t want to miss the surprise ending. Here’s the beginning: “Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!” “You sent me flowers! They’re gorgeous! But you told me you weren’t going to […]
When You’re Broadsided and Bewildered
At 6 PM, Saturday night, a middle-aged man with shoulder-length shaggy hair approached Nick with a question. “How many angel fish can I have in my 60-gallon tank?” Nick gave him the answer he learned from his PetSmart training staff. “For a 60-gallon tank, we recommend no more than 4 angelfish because they are territorial […]
The Pain of Self-Harm
Yesterday, I sat in a chair with my left arm propped up on the examining table. The orthopedic surgeon swabbed the injection site with iodine while I looked away and grabbed the nurse’s hand for support. The doctor warned me the injection would be painful. In went the needle, clear down to the bone. I […]
Animal Farm And Why We All Need To Know Our Weakness
In the context of trying to discover what a church believes about Scripture, I shared something I had heard from more than one. The man and woman looked at me quizzically. “That never happened here. We’re sure of it.” Perhaps I had misunderstood, I said. “Perhaps it was another church,” they replied. No, I was […]
What We All Need to Know About Respect and Servanthood
We rolled slowly along the street, meandering our way to what would soon be two new graves dug in Arlington National Cemetery—two of 400,000 already grassed green. Our vehicle stopped. Six men in crisp Army uniform stood in front of us, facing the awning where we would memorialize and pray for our friend’s father, Sgt. […]
Packs and The Lone Wolf—How to Deal with the Deadly, Including Ourselves
Electric races lightening fast through my nerves around 9:30 p.m. A pack of coyotes starts yipping and barking. They are close. Very close. Right on the edge of the densely wooded ravine next to our log home. My heart thumps hard in my chest. The eerie sounds of the pack grip me as I stand […]
Why We Need to Reach Out
There’s something ironic, even tragic, about feeling down-and-out. We don’t want to reach out. In fact, a common symptom of depression is isolation. Thinking we’re too much. Thinking we’re weird. Thinking we don’t want to burden anyone. Thinking we just need to get it together—pull ourselves up by our bootstraps—put on a happy face. Then […]
On the Edge: How Now Shall We Live?
Here is the world. You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time, you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. Frederick Buechner Our float plane’s […]
When Mother’s Day Reminds You of Death—The Way to Find Life
Mother’s Day, 2002 I called my mother to make sure she received the dozen red carnations I sent as a surprise. “They’re gorgeous! But you said you weren’t sending me flowers for Mother’s Day this year because of the bench.” “I know. But you’ve always told me flowers should be given to the living, not […]
Encouragement for the Broken and Stigmatized
I stepped out of the shadows and declared—on Facebook—during Holy Week—that I was suffering with clinical depression. I had hit the hard floor of desperation on Wednesday before Maundy Thursday in the midst of a medication change, one of several I’d been through over the past twenty years. So why did I dare post and […]