Living in the Projects The upstairs of our house is down to its studs. A major project is underway. Between now and the vision of a new bathroom and bedroom is a gorge of unimaginable proportions. New inlaid pipes leak like a tin can shot full of holes. We turn the water off, and we […]
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There’s a whisper in my ear. “I can’t do this,” it says. I’ve heard that voice all my life. Sometimes it speaks softly, sometimes it hisses, and sometimes it shouts. In the first days of our daughter’s catastrophic illness while I walked the marble halls of the hospital the words resounded with each step; a […]
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My husband grew up the pale-skinned blond boy in a black and white background of Ecuador. A child of missionaries, he biked deserted dirt roads, rode in airplanes and ate iguana. Immune to the exceptional, he grew up in view of Chimborazo with its peak covered by thin white icing. Missions chose him. I grew […]
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I’m hacking into the New Year. Struck down on Christmas Day with a cold and fever, and pushing through the fog ever since. From my sick bed, I watch the New Year roll into New York City. My fever doesn’t help with clarity, but I’ve never had a lot when it comes to bringing in […]
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On November 26 our twelfth grandchild entered the world. It occurred, appropriately, just hours before Thanksgiving. Our son sent a picture of our brand new grandson cradled in his arms minutes after the birth. The baby’s eyes and his daddy’s eyes gazed into one another. There is something soul-searching in that picture; the new father […]
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Thanksgiving tangled with unanswered prayers. I slumped against the antiseptic tiled hallway. My stalwart, “Hang on and hold it in,” gave way to unrestrained tears like prisoners let free. Crystal rivulets dropped to the floor at my feet. Each time I exited my daughter’s hospital room at Mayo clinic my stiff control burst like a […]
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It is root canal morning. I hate root canals. I’ve got teeth that crumble like coffee cake, fortunately, my dentist is pretty good. I climb into the dental chair and the hygienist reclines it. I try to relax, and I rate. I do this a lot in my mind. I’m pretty sure it isn’t normal. Would […]
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To be honest, I’m going into the whole blog thing with a bit of kicking and screaming. Blogs come and go like the national debt ticker. I have technological deficits within my brain that are like the mysterious black hole of the Milky Way, not the candy bar. I hate starting anything I am not […]
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Call me a late bloomer, but pushing senior citizen status is really late for deep-seated rebellion to raise its obnoxious head. I’m not having some sort of delayed reaction to restrictive parents, legalistic religious beliefs or a domineering spouse. No, in fact, in another person I would perhaps not recognize my inner thrashing as rebellion. […]
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Recently I talked to a friend armed with a list of bitter accusations. She began what soon became a blame saga with the words, “You’ll never know…” Since that conversation those words have become my self-check. The words alone are innocuous, and what she had to say about others had some validity, but they were […]
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