cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
Passion and Joy. Both are tricky words for me. I’m perhaps beginning to turn the corner on joy. I grew up in a family that claimed to be joyful but hid secrets of sexual trauma, addiction, and abuse. We were a happy, faith-filled family—or so I was told. There were good times, but they were…
Read More
On a residential street lined with leafless trees, I had just reached my car, feeling relaxed from a massage, when my phone rang. My husband was coming home. He worked so much my heart leapt. Maybe we’d get take-out and watch a movie as we snuggled up. Yanked from my reverie, I heard, “I’ve been…
Read More
Bagpipes resounded “Amazing Grace” as the June rain pounded the roof of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church. After the bridesmaids processed in pale pink tea dresses to the tune of “Canon in D,” the large wooden doors shut. Thunder clapped, marking the redemption of this day, the many dark chapters of our stories now expanding and…
Read More
Finally the day had arrived!
Read More
I haven’t been deployed to another country for battle but have been in my own combat zone. I’ve had to run, hide and plan ingenious strategies to survive. I was not trained for this war. I was thrust into it and like a savage I had to build my own artillery.
Read More
I want to hold her in my hands and look at her face. My eyes scroll over the pictures that haven’t moved from the self-adhesive plastic covered pages for years. I am looking for her. As I turn the page, I take her in and notice a tightening in my stomach. “She’s a pistol,” I…
Read More
“When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2 In my yard growing up, we had a “jungle” in the back corner along the fence. It was an area that the lawnmower couldn’t handle because the weeds and brush had already won over the grass. …
Read More
“We tell ourselves lies to bear the truth.” Dr. Dan Allender “Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?” The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis …
Read More
I have three young children, but more often than not, I feel like the mother of four. There are many times I’ve wondered what God was thinking, orchestrating circumstances so that the most intensive period of my recovery overlapped with having two small children under the age of four, then adding pregnancy and a third…
Read More
“Why do you say you have no one?” Stare. “What makes you feel no one understands?” Stare. “Can you make a box in your mind and fit the stories inside?” Stare. Blank. I stared. Thoughts echoed inside but I didn’t dare say them out-loud.
Read More