reframing femininity
When he was a young child, my son’s body felt like an extension of mine. His nuzzling, nursing lips on my breast, his feel, his smell, his desires—all of it was an extension of me. Even now, as a teenager, his desires and motives are astonishingly transparent to me when I consider how hard it…
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I gave birth to my son via C-section. It was not how the script was supposed to go, but I was an older first-time mother and a natural birth was not in my destiny. When the nurse laid my baby on my breast, I was so numb from the epidural that I couldn’t feel his…
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There is a saying that is particularly apropos of the Colorado Front Range: “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” We can have snowflakes one moment, sleet the next, hail the next, rain the next, and then always a return to our characteristic blue skies that inspired the country oldie, “baby blue was…
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I rested on my nordic skis at the edge of the meadow. The sun was just up, the sky perfectly blue. The snow sparkled, the meadow before me was a sea of glitter. It beckoned, promising a glorious experience, yet I felt small and alone, and reluctant to start across, for some reason. I took…
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One recent morning, a memory of the smell of the Cape Cod shoreline seared across me so sharply I almost gasped. Our memories of place can have this effect on us. After decades in the southwestern desert, I still miss the scarlet reds of east coast maple trees in autumn so much that I sometimes…
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We have had a terrible dry winter and spring in the southwestern desert. Day after day has dawned with clear skies and a relentless sun. The land has grown parched. The pine trees in our yard have turned brown, and the threat of fire looms across the mountains above our town. It has become a…
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I handed my collection check to a friend and slipped out early to my car. I was surprised that I wasn’t angry. I felt curiously at peace, despite the sudden disruption of my worship plans.
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What if your life was about to change? Many of us must long for it. It’s a big theme in kids’ fantasy adventure books. Have you ever wondered if it’s quite as easy as it sounds?
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