21Dec 11, 2015
This is such a crazy time, isn’t it?! In the end, it is something in every way tiny–a broken hairband, actually, popping and snapping against my fingers–that finally breaks my resolve. It’s always that way with a slow crumble. Millions of rips–unseen, unheard, unhealed–weaken the muscle until finally the barest graze finishes the work. I stand behind […]
22Dec 26, 2014
I weave my way through aisles, casually lifting trinkets in one hand, weighing their merit as stocking stuffers against the cost, yellow-highlighted on white stickers. We left home early to avoid the rush, the traffic, and scurried huddled through the icy mist to gather our gifts. We chuckle, in a jovial but deeply horrified, self-convicted […]
23Dec 12, 2014
Evening, and twinkling lights glint on gold thread. I ask Adam what he wants for Christmas and he says, “Presents.” The word lights his eyes and tumbles out of his mouth with dancing laughter and an “Oh!” that wraps up the feeling of a bow-topped gift given, handled, expectantly shaken. “What kind of presents?” I say, reaching […]
24Dec 5, 2014
“Don’t come into the kitchen,” she says, rushing over to me as I walk in the door, as Adam squeezes past and dumps his bag on the table, emptying it of its contents. “It’s a surprise…Don’t come in.” I close my mama mouth and smile, even though I’m thinking that I already know the surprise—she’s […]
25Dec 27, 2013
In the late afternoon, I sit on the sofa holding a mug of peppermint tea, feeling the happy weight of a new cookbook in my lap. For all our turning to technology, I still savor the turn of a page, the texture of paper in my fingers. I glance up from the glossy photographs, the […]
26Dec 20, 2013
Early morning and Lights twinkle, the Advent candles burn their persistant hope, and in the kitchen I stand still, watching my daughter pause over her pricked finger and the blood rounding into a bubble at the tip. I know she’s crying by the way she catches her breath, the slope of her back, the angle […]
27Dec 13, 2013
Our day opens new and early, born screaming and sudden, ripping through the silent dark soundness of sleep. I plant a kiss on Kevin’s hand where it lays warm on my arm, and then I slide out into the cold. I want to stay and rest and pretend that the time really doesn’t matter, but […]
28Dec 6, 2013
It hardly feels like it’s been weeks now, weeks since we sat in my living room sharing friendship, talking about what inspires us. And when these dear sister-friends of mine turned my question back to me, I said, “A million things. A million things inspire me.” I listed for them just some and neglected many more, but […]
29Nov 22, 2013
Well okay, not just the holidays. I can’t ignore the resounding, soul-altering Comment: This is not just for now. We linger, just souls pouring, and in those moments, walls fall. The thunderous quake, the crashing of ugly pretense pushed down, is something I feel, something that shakes Heaven maybe, while here, our voices softly offer […]
30Dec 14, 2012
The morning rushes from the start. Light, cold and sterling, glowing fresh, bleeds through the curtains. We swing our legs toward the chill, gathering hope, tucking promises deep. In the first moments of waking, we dress for battle. The sword flashes, Powerful Word cutting away and shaping new, and we whisper prayers, and we get […]