That Look
We’ve had some beautiful summer days recently, and we’ve done some beautiful summer things. The other day, the girls and I joined the little one’s Sunday school class at a local park for playtime and popsicles, and then we ran by the drug store to pick up a prescription. The grocery store right across the parking lot carries good produce, so we stopped in to get some fruit for smoothies before heading next door to the new Lebanese bistro to split a shawarma wrap. Then it was home for naptime for Little Bit and mango banana shakes for the big girl and me. Our beautiful day was capped off by a picnic in the state park near our house. Reading back over the day’s events, I think, “That sounds perfect. Whose life is that anyway?” Because, in reality, our...
Read MoreNomad
I was in the middle of writing an entirely different blog post, but something happened today that has completely sidetracked my thoughts. My aunt Patsy’s husband, my sweet uncle Don, graduated to Eternity. He’s one of the most joyful and gentle souls I’ve ever known. And while we’re so very happy for him that he is breathing the air of a place that is free of pain and heartache, we are left here to sort out the pieces. Shortly after my mom passed away in 2011, I went through a couple of months of depression. I’ve always written songs as a way of ordering my thoughts, so in that season’s deepest night, I wrote one called “Nomad”. Broken and aching and wounded and weary Falling and failing and fighting and torn Crawling on my knees to get where...
Read MoreAn Open Letter to My Girl-Going-on-Woman
Dear Daughter of Mine, In a couple of days, I will be thirty-six. This means that you have been with me, a part of me, for a third of my life. I was not much more than a girl-child myself on that day almost exactly twelve years ago when your daddy held my hand in a chilly little room, and we saw our first glimpse of your tiny face on the blurry ultrasound. The best birthday gift I’ve ever received was you, my healthy baby girl, kicking and rolling there on the screen. Aunt Faith and I made a cake covered with pink and yellow flowers to celebrate. As the time came near and you stretched my skin and pressed my lungs, I dreamed of the way it would be and what I would say. But when they laid you on my belly, you were so beautiful, you stole my words. All I could...
Read MoreEntropy Wears a Diaper
The Second Law of Thermodynamics lives at my house. You know the physics principle that states that all things tend toward chaos? In our case, chaos has brown ringlets and a dimple in her adorable little chin. We just arrived home from our second out-of-state trip in less than a month, a saga that included an unexpected mechanic visit during which one of the kids threw up in the back seat. Our house looks like somebody emptied the contents of every dresser and bookcase onto the floor and then ran over it all with a monster truck. The evergreen wreath shed a quarter of its needles in our absence, and there are mysterious green spots on the kitchen linoleum (ground-in peas, maybe?). Sigh… My two year old, chaos-in-motion, loves to “help”. I know this is...
Read MoreOf Time and Earlobes
Do your ears hang low? Do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?” When I was young, I thought this silly children’s song was about the Venables, my mom’s side of our family tree. You see, the Venables have a peculiar, if endearing, trait. As we age, our earlobes continue growing until they dangle to sometimes impressive lengths. And I say “we” because I genuinely hope to be counted among the long-eared Venables someday. The legacy I have is rich and thick, like dark molasses. My great-grandparents, Matt and Verlie, raised six kids and buried one on a Kentucky hillside, somehow making ends meet and love multiply. I never met my great-grandfather, but I hear stories of his prayers. While he walked behind his mule, dragging...
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