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. […]

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 […]

The older I get, the more I treasure handmade things. I look around, and those are the things that still touch me—the emblems of love carefully knitted or sewn together, the artwork sometimes curvy and crooked that wears my children’s fingerprints.  Every year at Christmas, I hang fabric stockings one of my beautiful aunts pieced […]

“1,2,3…Okay, Mom—I’m going to count how many people signed my yearbook.  Let’s see how many I have.” And she begins again, confident that she has my attention.  “Let’s see, I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…and here I have 9, 10, 11, 12,”she says, counting the ones who wrote words and the […]

I walk in the room and see Love: Tears leave slow trails on her cheeks and he leans over her, catching the drops with one finger.  He slides his finger along her cheek bones, drawing wet crosses over the smooth, tender skin as she cries. She weeps quietly, the way she used to live.  “I’ll […]

I sit maybe five feet away, watching women I think of as friends clumped together, laughing.  They touch each other’s arms and smile, a glossy photograph of friendship.  And for a moment, I see only lip gloss and accessories. I forget that these images are a mirage, an illusion, a fashionable scam. I had tried […]

“How did he ask you?” She leans forward, a piece of cantaloupe dangling on the end of her fork.  I watch the fruit drip honeyed juice on her plate, anointing terra cotta flowers. Her eyes are full moons.  She waits, as though caught on the cusp of a good story. I follow her eyes, glancing […]

Motherhood is an emptying. And the pouring out, with all it’s awkward splats and splashes, really starts the day God drops the seed of a child, planting a soul in our most cavernous places, claiming the soil of us for His own harvest.  The latching on of new life breaks walls, bruises tissue, draws blood. […]

Over lunch, we talk of how we first imagined ourselves as mothers, smiling down at our fingers. I’ve always longed to be the Proverbs 31 woman.  She is clothed with strength and dignity, Word says.  She can laugh at the days to come.  I don’t know, but somehow the unmanicured edges of my fingernails seem […]

In the afternoons, his daughters run to him. They hear his keys jingle in the lock, and nothing matters except that he’s home.  Words hang in the air between us.  Pencils roll off the table where they’ve been carelessly tossed down.  I lift my hands out of the dishwater and dry them on a towel. […]