Being Honest with a Friend Should Not Require Courage
When my fourth child was almost a year old, I had an important conversation with a friend, but I had no idea, at the time, how important it would be. Perhaps I should look her up and reach out again,…
Are You Threatening Me?
The husband of a sister-in-law wore a t-shirt emblazoned with a vintage political “pairing” to the most recent family Christmas gathering: “Reagan/Bush 84.” This fellow and I were standing in the kitchen, where the conversation was lagging. Therefore, I decided…
Freedom is Hard to Hold
Explanations are for English Papers In the process of putting away Christmas decorations recently, I washed five cut crystal vases and two candlesticks and arranged them in pleasing groupings on the mantel. There’s still a big empty space in the…
Taking a Safety
I got to the computer yesterday by way of Stephen Harrod Buhner’s Ensouling Language, a book I am still s-l-o-w-l-y making my way through (and now that I’ve shared it with Dennis, it’s often in his office, where I don’t…
Late Nights and Bad Memories
It’s a gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies, white snow, and green trees out my window. The driveway could use some shoveling, so I’m sure I’ll be out in the fresh air before the dark descends around 5:00, which feels…
The Best I Could Give
I recently started following a poet on Instagram. His name is David Gates, and today he shared verse that stood out. It relates to the question, When do we, as humans, become afraid to ask for help? As Gates points out, we’re…
Out in the Cold
C.S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche in his powerful novel Till We Have Faces. This is my second reading of the book, and everything’s different for me now that I’ve moved my starting point and see clearly…
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
It’s a new day and a new year. Like the Roman god Janus, I am looking both ahead and back. As little as two or three years ago, this would have bothered me, because I knew that the past had…
A Harsh Truth
A few months ago, I read Savage Wisdom by Adam Cam, after following him for a while on Instagram. The man is brutal (and he loves his four-letter words), but I’ve long found myself attracted to people who tell the harsh truth…
Peace Travels Light
Alice Miller has made me a minimalist. All that’s left? Me and the truth. The agendas; the philosophies; the advice and instruction; the judgments, opinions, and ratings; the rules and the “this is the way it’s done”s; the excuses and…
One Piece Leads to Another
Well, goodness knows, I’m tenacious. I certainly wouldn’t be here writing if I weren’t. On my kitchen table right now sits a 28 x 22” slab of foamcore board and on it is a partially complete jigsaw puzzle. I wanted…
Still Going
This is where the road gets lonely. I thought that it looked pretty desolate back at the beginning of April, 2020, when I was sending friends and family videos of ambulances sitting idle and hospital parking lots that were just…
