91Apr 18, 2014
Sometimes from the start of a day a dull ache builds, spreading slowly from the curve of my back well into the sharp edges of my shoulders. It is the sore feel of self dying, the good ache of need, the one meant to remind me that God accomplishes and satisfies (Deuteronomy 8:3). But the truth […]
92Mar 21, 2014
Today, this encouragement: Write it down. In her lap, a piece of notebook paper sits folded, pressed beneath her hands. She picks it up, fingering the edges and the corner, where the paper turns up like a curling wave. From across the room, I can see the faint blue ruling, the holes at the edges, […]
93Mar 14, 2014
Rigidity is a Spectrum curve, one we’ve worn to a polish, fast slipping our way through so often that we know the feel of it by heart. After all, we’ve got not one track here, but two, and even though the trajectories spin differently, that particular curve is common to both. Something starts fresh, like […]
94Jan 31, 2014
Today, just this:It sounds like a simple thing, like frivolity scattered over a day, like something a mother says before she sends her daughter out to make a presentation of herself: Remember to smile. But it’s just this the Spirit whispers to me, just these three words planted in the middle of an afternoon, just […]
95Jan 17, 2014
Our living is a wandering…and a return home. We have lived the same story in vast repetition since the couple left the Garden, since they glimpsed the two trees for the last time, barely touching the leaves with their fingers as they passed. And since that time, when they believed for just a moment too […]
96Jan 10, 2014
By the time we make it to the greenway, it’s late morning. I unload a bike for Adam—a beach cruiser, because he likes to keep things uncomplicated, and then I hand the girls their scooters. The air is brisk, but the sun burns bright, and ahead of us, the sky is brilliant cerulean, almost sapphire. […]
97Dec 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 […]
98Nov 15, 2013
We spend an afternoon at the table passing sheets of sticky letters, photographs, pens. Before I turn my attention to helping Riley through homework, before cooking, before folding the towels, Zoe and I sit together tasting gratitude like honey on our tongues. I press down a bit of light-catching foam and wonder why it feels […]
99Nov 1, 2013
In the afternoon, we burst through the door, with three different conversations knotting in the air—one thread hard to follow, one dangling, one darting so fast I can’t keep up. A general fumbling ensues for snacks, and Mom, I need to tell you, and What I have to do today is, and May I watch Tom and Jerry, […]
100Oct 4, 2013
Morning comes and we hear the sound of the ocean, the crash of waves. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that sound,” Kevin says, fresh from sleep. Almost all week, we’ve kept the door open to hear the sea, and I keep listening to the Spirit reminding me that the voice of […]