71Oct 16, 2015
The hour turns, and my friend waves me over, patting the chair beside. All evening, we have all only wanted to surround her, this iron-strong friend strong enough yet to admit that she needs us to lift her. It takes a brave woman to allow the veil to fall—whisper-light—from her face, to sit uncovered and honest, to […]
72Oct 2, 2015
I hear the door open, and with that sound comes the volume of her sadness, the distinct sound of brokenness. Tears always steal her breath the way they still steal mine, and before I can see her I hear that awful gasp, the way she hungrily stuggles for air. She cries with her whole body. The […]
73Aug 14, 2015
Thank you, Lord, that we have plenty of food to eat. It’s a simple thing he says holding my hand, breathing deeply before God, just as I sit down with a sigh, just as I’ve gotten it all wrong and lost my grateful perspective. Five minutes and it’s time to take Zoe to school. It […]
74Jul 17, 2015
I love everyone. Riley rainbow-writes the words on her hand in letters that look faded against her skin, some big, some small, some crooked where the pens slip into the valleys between her fingers. It’s a God thing to write love into surfaces, into souls, into the tissue of our hands, but for her the […]
75Jul 10, 2015
So, I’ve been hurting over something we do to each other. I say we because I’m guilty too, we because we’re in this together, we because it takes all of us to change our culture. In my life, the repetitive strategy of the enemy often looks like this, just with different supporting details: Flashback nearly twelve years, […]
76Feb 27, 2015
Snow falls, and the gathering white arrests our attention. Somewhere between bacon sizzling and deftly wacking the eggs against the clear bowl with the tiny chip just there, my phone rings. An automated message from the school system. The voice comes through just a little too loud, and I lift my coffee cup (poured steamy the second […]
77Jan 23, 2015
I walk in, and she sits alone on the third row—she, only here to be with; she, who forgets how to breathe when being means there’s just too much to absorb. She has the courage of a lion, and most don’t even know. A movie flashes large on the screen at the front of the room, but I […]
78Jan 16, 2015
“I understand sometimes she has a hard time, and I don’t mind. I don’t. You know? I let things go. I don’t make a big deal,“ she says quietly, sipping thoughtfully, sitting carefully across from me at a dot of a table. If we could but offer each other this, that we all make unintentional mistakes.Zoe jiggles […]
79Jan 9, 2015
Afternoon, and noting the time, we drop the things in our hands, gathering and folding into the car. We turn corners and lift our hands, flat shields against the blinding sun, mutually complaining about the sight-stealing while we give thanks for the warmth, huddling into our seats. You cannot see my face, for no one […]
80Dec 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 […]