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Fatherless on Father’s Day {a note to my dad}
Dear Dad, I once heard a set of parents say that they wanted their ceiling to be their children's floor. If you'd heard that, too, you would have said it. You lived it. Though your body was broken for about as many years of my life as not, I think I'll always remember...
How to Love a Man
Dear husband -- it's not just them whom you've trapped in wonder. They'll make you cards and sing songs to which they've forgotten half the words and climb all over you first thing Sunday morning to wish you Happy Father's Day, but I'm the one who sees what seven and...
What Do You Say to that Voice that Wants You to Quit?
How many times do you need to respond to something in one particular (toxic) way before you notice a pattern? With five kids, one of them still in diapers, my answer is usually "many." But I'm pretty sure that before the five kids and before I had one in diapers the...
It Takes Work to Rest
It's a radiant four pm. The counters are wiped, slick. The sink is empty and dinner is simmering next to my teapot, also humming. The children are willingly lost in the woods out back and the babe still asleep. I can't smell anyone's afternoon sweat and there's not a...
A Little Love Note {for the mama still in her sweatpants}
Hey you, Yes, you, still in your sweatpants and un-showered, hours into your day. This love note is for you. Between seven a.m. when they wake, alert and ready to tackle the world and you and any sibling that accidentally touches the edge of that notebook that...
Finding The Love That Retrieves
We stand in line at the grocery store, no different than the week before. It's Friday. The cashiers know my family and my children know them by name. Miss Misty is having a baby. Eden knew it months before it was obvious and I hushed her in fear that she'd engaged in...
Holy Week Adoration: You Said Her Name In That Way
She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him,“Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). – excerpt from John...
Holy Week Adoration: Your Marvelous Silence
Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not...
Holy Week Adoration: A Death-Life Exchange, Even Before Your Death
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the...
The Best Thing I Can Give My Children
While babies across the earth warmed in their mama's insides, mine was a photograph on my fridge. She had fingernails and eyebrows and could open and close her eyes, already. She'd done so for years when her picture wasn't on my fridge. I couldn't feel her kick, but I...