Window Thinking
The boys and I listened to Where the Red Fern Grows this summer and I’ve been meaning to get back here to make this note….. About 1/3 of the way into the book, Billy has survived the Dog Wanting Disease and hunting season is about to begin. On the big opening day he cleans and …
Rob Bell on The RobCast 8.19.18: ….there is this paradox. This tension. This polarity that we all carry around between what we can control, and what we can’t. That which, when our hand is on the wheel, we can actually steer. And that which exists outside of our power, will, and dominion. That which is simply …
A trip to Zambia, house hunting in Alaska, and a new puppy. Facebook has been serving me some life-changing “on this day” memories. Six years ago David and I flew to Anchorage to find a house to rent. I was sooooo grumpy that weekend. David likes to remind me that just 10 months earlier I …
It’s a scary thing to learn you have cancer and I have wondered every day since how this could have possibly happened to me. A gut punch landed when I opened my Facebook feed a few days ago and saw beloved Anchorage cross country skier Kikkan Randall had posted a statement that she’s in treatment …
On the day when The weight deadens On your shoulders And you stumble, May the clay dance To balance you……. It was a grey Monday here. There have been an awful lot of grey days here this summer. But this Monday hung particularly heavy. I worked outside much of the day – digging, digging, digging. …
…..Can you feel the hearts of the children? Aching for home, for something of their very own Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to, But hope for a better day ….. Kurt Bestor | The Prayer of the Children
Whatever it is for you in your life, your work – whatever your next step is, my prayer for you is that you do not experience hopelessness because there is always another step to take. My hope and prayer for you is that you are listening to whatever that whisper or shout or nudge or …
I have been running again. Long distances. Often. The last time I ran like this was (also the first time) in Spring 2016, and I was training for a July half marathon. I was also enrolled in a writing class that spring and had recently written <500 words on a dandelion so, as my feet …
What happens when refugee youth are empowered with vocational skills and given tools to start their own businesses? They become productive, self-reliant, and are in position to support their families. And Given Tools To Start Their Own Businesses. In my Twitter feed today I saw this story from World Vision International about four young entrepreneurs thriving in …
“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound…….” You can listen to Wendell Berry read his poem The Peace of the Wild Things here.
Last April I got a prescription for my first pair of glasses. Actually, three pairs of glasses. One for reading. One for distance. One for sunshine. I’d been using over-the-counter reading glasses for a couple years previously, so that wasn’t really new, but when I walked outside with my new distance glasses on – OH!!! …
I simply had no idea what to expect from The Life of Pi. Over the past years several people have told me they liked the book and they thought I would too. I know the story took shape for the big screen several years ago and received positive review. But I guess I never really read …
I did not know this is a thing. But indeed: Today! And so. Of course…..Ginger. Ginger our golden puppy. Ginger our yellow dog. The stories we tell. The love we share. You captured our hearts with your “sorrowful eyes” and instantly became the sun holding our boy in orbit. We are fuller, richer, happier because you are part of our family story. We …
Sitting in my chair by the window this morning, I was thinking about my September calendar and only half attending as I read aloud to the boys. Blue sky + white puffy clouds + sunshine replaced yesterday’s cold rain in my window view as my eyes ran fast across the words on the page in front of me. We’ve been …
Surgery is surgery is surgery is surgery. That is, the word itself lays bare its associations, its attendant emotions and connotations. It is what it is. Risk. Difficulty. Vulnerability. Attendant Pain. A Body Altered. The only relevant question is whether the surgery heals or merely disfigures the body – Lynne Greenburg, The Body Broken: A Memoir …
This morning I read this article: Half the World Menstruates. Now, Let’s Talk About It and I want to talk about it. A few days ago I opened the bathroom cupboard to grab a new roll of toilet paper and saw this: I flew to Oregon two+ months ago for a complete hysterectomy. Just back home last week, …
This NYT article The Art of Presence came through my twitter feed today and the headline stopped me. As I read the article I flooded with memories and resonance. Do be there. Don’t compare, ever. Do bring soup. Do not say “you’ll get over it.” Do be a builder. Don’t say it’s all for the …
Thanksgiving landed on the calendar quite late this year. Today marked the final day of the Thanksgiving holiday even as it also marked the first Sunday in Advent. I was born the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, nearly a month too early. My lungs were not ready so I spent my first days in an incubator connected …
I think I discovered Byrd Baylor’s books when I was teaching a 4th grade geology unit. From Everybody Needs A Rock: Everybody needs a rock. I’m sorry for kids who don’t have a rock for a friend. I’m sorry for kids who only have tricycles bicycles horses elephants goldfish three-room playhouses fire engines wind-up dragons …
Mid June – July is littered with markers for events that have changed my life. On June 19, David and I celebrated 15 years of marriage. This is what I worked on, but unfinished, I never posted: It was an awkward love, Ours. Victims of small-town matchmaking drawn together by a mysterious Love that would not …
So I like to read. A lot. In eager anticipation of her visit to Loussac Library tomorrow I’ve been reading Linda Sue Park’s books to my boys and last week in Keeping Score I read this description: The library at Grand Army Plaza was one of Maggie’s favorite places. mom had taken her there ever …
I read Anne Lamott’s latest book Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers during a stretch of gorgeous March weather. The days here in Anchorage were getting longer, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. One afternoon Ethan and I even squeezed fresh lemonade and set it outside to chill. There were still …
Country Road take me home, to the place I belong….. John Denver In April we flew to Oregon and spent 2+ weeks fully immersed in an unusually warm and absolutely glorious Oregon spring. We left piles of Alaska snow and a string of days stretched backward to months spanning a very long, white and cold winter. …
The other day I watched through the window as an older lady and her caregiver navigated the narrow path of dry, bare pavement that etched its way through our snowy, ice-packed street. The older lady was using a walker to aid her steps and all of the sudden I remembered: This picture was taken the …