cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
Recently, I was gifted with a surprise night to savor an evening at the theater indulging in the musical Hamilton. The musical had come to my attention during the summer of 2020 while much of the world was still on lockdown. Social media was hyping the Broadway musical, and eventually my curiosity was piqued. Hamilton’s…
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A few years ago, my father posted a Facebook post telling the cyber world that he had met the last love of his life. He explained that he had been allowed to love five women over his lifetime, and this woman was the last of his great loves. I remember staring at the confession on…
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I sat, four rows back on the right, just behind the grandparents of the beautiful little girls being baptized. My Christian faith tradition practices the baptism of babies and children, and that day a young family was presenting their 3-year old COVID baby and her infant sister for this ancient sacrament. In our practice, baptism…
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Last month, my husband and I moved from the home we’ve lived in for 24 years—the house we built after moving back to Michigan, where we raised our family. There were several moments throughout the stressful process when I felt like I’d foolishly launched into the deep end of the pool and wasn’t going to…
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We were almost to Austin, and I needed to tell my boss I was quitting. We had driven from San Antonio together for a women’s leadership panel. I had planned on bringing up my departure much earlier on our trip, but the moment hadn’t felt right, and now as she got on the toll road…
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Downsizing. The word sounds sad…and old. I am like a hermit crab, looking for a new shell, but not a larger one—a smaller one, to fit my smaller life. Purging. I roam around my big house, tossing overboard the flotsam and jetsam of my previous life.
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The estimated time of arrival on my GPS read 4:12 a.m. That meant my head could hit the pillow by 4:15 a.m., which would give me a solid 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep before my kids were ready to start the day. Earlier that day, I decided to make the 5-hour drive to…
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I interviewed for my graduate program without planning to. You see, I was on a mission. Ever since watching a documentary on sex slavery in India that turned my world upside down, I had been meeting with a few counseling graduate students at my husband’s school. We combed through magazine ads and randomly drove down…
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One night, sitting in front of the family television, for the first time in my life, I sobbed at the end of a touching movie. The year was 1966, and the film Born Free aired in homes across America. The movie, based on a true story, tells of a lioness named Elsa, an orphaned lion…
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One of my favorite artists, P!nk, was recently honored with the Icon Award at the iHeartRadio music awards. Standing on the stage, with award in hand, she paused briefly before saying, “I usually do try to joke or be self-deprecating in these moments, but I want to be a better friend to myself tonight, so…
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