I see God everywhere on the coast.  I talk to Him, standing at the water’s edge watching, listening, feeling.  “You gather all this into jars (Psalm 33:7).  You alone rule over the surging sea (Psalm 89:9)… The seas have lifted up, LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding […]

Adam hates waiting. When he was in first grade, he often got to be the line leader for his class when they left the classroom.  But Adam didn’t like to wait, so when the teacher said, “Line up at the door,” he’d just open the door and leave.  Every reminder, “Adam,wait,” he met with frustration.  “Please, wait!!” […]

“And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ~Simeon (man “moved by the Holy Spirit”) to Mary (mother of the Savior of all mankind) the gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 35 She could not have known.  Standing there, with her baby just over a month old, showing up as she was for obedience—Mary […]

We’re sitting in a circle, you and I, with half a dozen other people we love.  It’s late at night, past the hour when everyone started yawning, past the time when we all ambled into the kitchen looking for snacks, all the way past pitch dark and silence to that hour when the world seems […]

This morning, Adam couldn’t find his favorite math worksheet. “Three Steps?” he said to me, his face a few inches from mine, his body leaning in to where I sat sipping my coffee on the porch. Adam and I had communicated enough about Three Steps in the last week for me to know (finally) that this […]

Last weekend, Adam went camping with his dad for the first time.  And the most wonderful thing happened: he had a blast. Living with autism, there are things we parents just get used to not being able to do with our children.  We stand in groups of parents who are chattering about all the things […]

Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. ~Dallas Willard, as quoted in The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith, 183 Sometimes I feel like a horrible mother. These are the days when I truly realize the power of grace, and these are the days when my thanksgiving for it is most earnest. Sometimes I feel […]

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher. ~Temple Grandin Mrs. Nesbitt used to throw gum at me during class, her lips curling up in a wide smile that erupted with laughter that sounded half-crazy.  I was always the third child in my family to sit under my teachers’ tutelage, and Mrs. Nesbitt […]

This morning, I’ve been baking, and the house smells like rich chocolate.  Chocolate Curious George cake, to be exact. Adam will be 9 years old tomorrow, and the cake was a request.  I shared this with some of my sisters a few nights ago, asking them to thank God along with me for the gift […]

This afternoon, when I picked the kids up from school, Zoe ran over to the van.  Weeping. I opened the door and pulled her into my lap, and the words came tumbling out with her tears. “Mom, Emily said she hated me.  And then, when we were leaving school, and I was telling Roxanna what […]