cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
My husband was diagnosed with acute kidney disease with renal failure in 2012. At that time, he was driving a truck making 10-day trips from Texas to New Mexico and I often accompanied him. On April 1, 2012, I started my period. I had been dealing with “the change” for ten years, which included horrible,…
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It has been three years since she left. The missing of her grows like sprawling crabgrass over my tender lawn. I long to hear her voice and see the sparkle of life in her brown eyes. Eyes that saw me. She would have delighted in the things that have happened since she’s been gone. I…
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When the Securitate would enter our house, my sister and I would hide in the bathroom, the one where the tile and commode and even the porcelain tub was pink, and tell each other stories. There was the story of the gypsies who kidnapped fair-headed children like ourselves, cut off a hand or foot, then…
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A friend recently invited me to a talk at her church about keeping faith during difficult times. I had a work conflict so I could not attend, but I commented, “I could give that talk.” “Oh, yeah,” she responded. Nine months after my friend Jim died, I gave a retreat talk on gratitude. I shared…
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How do you talk about the girl who is the beginning of every story you tell? The girl whom everyone seemed to experience similarly: intense, passionate, a bit wild, and fiercely loving. At least, that’s the theme that ran through every remembrance shared at her memorial last month. And that’s the girl etched in my…
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“The bitter drink of death is still before you.” – C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce A late-stage cancer diagnosis has become an unwanted challenge inviting me and my friends to walk in a uniquely odd journey of hope through a minacious and evolving terrain.
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Dear Cancer, I wanted to write a letter cursing you and erasing you from this world and from the lives of all those I love who are battling, beaten, or dead because of you.
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An early life-lesson for me was that every curse has a blessing, and the sooner I accept the curse, the sooner I will know the blessing.
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“I’ll always be with you.”
Read More“New Year, New You!” proclaims everything from ads for fitness clubs and weight loss centers to books by health gurus claiming to have THE secret formula for a happy and healthy you.
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