cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
I was 26 when my then fiancé called off our wedding five days prior to the big day. In the immediate aftermath, my thoughts were a numbed haze, disbelief serving as a kind of thick bubble wrap that initially insulated me from the pain I would befriend in coming months.
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Tread water, get pulled under, push to surface, gasp for air, tread water, get pulled under, push to surface, gasp for air. Slowly drowning has become my way of life. There is a rhythm to it, one that is familiar. A pattern that should probably feel scary or dangerous instead feels like home. So even…
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In my life I have often found that the thing I most desperately long for in others is the quality I am longing for within myself. I have wanted to feel safe. I have wanted friendships that I could trust. I have wanted friends that I could depend on. I have longed at times to…
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You know you have an internal critic when your therapist tells you that you have an “Integrated Self” and a “Critical Self.”
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A friend gave me a Skylight photo frame that allows me to upload photos to the Cloud and then watch as the device takes me through the sequence I have uploaded. We have over forty photo albums, and each time I take out the aging pictures, I am thrown into a moment where I see myself…
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I place a hand on my heart and a hand on my belly. I take a deep breath in and say, “How can I best nurture and honor and serve you today?”
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The pristine images stream across social media and finely designed spot varnished print covers. A single raspberry in the snow. A frost-covered twig in a spartan landscape. A cobalt blue table setting showcases a delectable winter soup. A closet sports a perfectly aligned array of similarly neutral-colored garments on matched wood hangers. You well-heeled women…
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“During Sabbath, we can listen with openness and curiosity…Here, voices can speak to us, voices we can only hear in the quiet. Only at rest can we hear what we have not heard before, and be led to what is most deeply beautiful, necessary, and true.” – Wayne Muller In the early afternoon of April…
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I learned early the best way to survive was to fly under my mother’s radar. Do what I was told, when I was told, exactly as I was told. Her way was/is the only right way. No exceptions. I was an “easy” child. I was a good student, earning good grades and comments from teachers.…
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Tonight I watched the PBS documentary, Mr. Roger’s Won’t you be my neighbor? Seeing those familiar scenes brought up a swirl of feelings. I watched Mr. Rogers every day when I was a young girl growing up in Oregon. My world was in chaos, although no one at all knew. In the conservative tradition of…
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