Leaving perfectionism behind
I won’t be around forever. Someday I will be nothing more than a handful of memories shared on holidays, a dozen stories passed around the dinner table, and a hundred bedside prayers providing protection for years to come. But when I’m gone, there will be people in this world who will remember what my …
Continue reading "the incredible weightless weight of my child’s child"
My birthday was on Monday, but instead of waking up to breakfast in bed, I woke up to another day of dealing with bedbugs. I had spent the previous day with box of black garbage bags and a day's wages in quarters, transporting clothes from the bedrooms to the laundromat in an endless procession of …
There are parts of my story I wish I could forget. Parts that still make me cringe, all these years later. Parts that just happened I might have avoided, only I never saw them coming because I was looking the other way for a moment too long. My life is like the Midwest in …
Continue reading "What to do when you find yourself skidding"
There are sheep and there are shepherds and being a sheep without a shepherd is one thing, but being a sheep with a shepherd is a horse of an entirely different color. You might say I'm wearing blinders, that the world has evolved and no one needs anyone except maybe themselves. You might think I'm …
Continue reading "As real as the smell of coffee in the morning"
You don't know me yet, but you will. You're going to know me as the one who makes cookies and lets you lick the spoon, the one who tells funny stories about your mom, and the one who gets wrinkles at the corners of her eyes when she laughs. I hope you love my cookies …
Continue reading "A round-trip ticket to colorfully sketched places"
I would not wish you small again, not for all the tea in China. Your chubby little arms that circled my neck every morning when I lifted you from your crib forever softened my spirit. The baby-lotioned scent of your weight in my arms and the love-struck sound of my own off-key …
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but then pictures don't always tell the whole story, which is something I have learned on social media. We say we're keeping it real when we post our “nailed it" photos of the three-tiered cake we tried to bake for Grandma's birthday, or when …
Continue reading "No one wants to see all that, not even the Russians"
You were born with love in your heart and fire in your soul, and don't you ever forget it. You were born with love in your heart to share with those who will love you back. Those who will laugh and cry with you, and want to be with you most of all. …
There are no destinations in life, only journeys. I thought I was just getting a small bite of dark chocolate goodness to finish off my brown bag lunch, but it would seem I was in store for a whole lot more. I licked the chocolate off my finger as I read that Dove wrapper and …
I am tired of trying so hard to be ... enough. It wasn't always this way. When I was little, I knew I was enough. I felt it all the way from my crooked front tooth down to my curly pinky toes. My mom told me I was enough, and I believed her. My dad …
