impatient with grief
Some of you started following this blog after you read my Open Letter to Grief. If that was the case, then this article on Today's Christian Woman is for you: http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2013/september/impatient-with-grief.html It's called Impatient with Grief, and I found it so helpful. I hope you do,...
coming soon
In the month of October, I’m planning to take on a 31-day writing challenge hosted by The Nester. The challenge is to choose a topic and post every single day for the entire month. The topic I’ve chosen is: In 31 days, I plan to share reflections on my experiences moving ten times in ten years, including two inter-continental moves, how my cross-cultural family has influenced my definition of ‘home,’ how my mom's death at age 59 affected my view of 'home,' my temptation to get comfortable in this world, and my deeper conviction that heaven is our real home. I...
delayed gratification
At this year’s county fair, we told our three kids that they could have four dollars each to spend on rides. The older two started scoping out their options right away; but our six-year-old thought about it for a while, then said, “Actually, I really want to save up for a skateboard. Can I skip the rides and save the four dollars instead?” I admit, I was quite surprised by his willingness to forego immediate fun in favor of a delayed, longer-lasting reward. He realized that the enjoyment of the fairground ride would be very short-lived; the skateboard, on the other hand, though still a...
life, life and more life – a book review
It is my pleasure to commend Wendy van Eyck's new e-book, "Life, Life and more Life: Thoughts on Making Every Moment Count." I "met" Wendy via iBelieve.com, a site to which we both contribute. I felt an immediate bond to her as soon as I found out that she was South African. Then my heart went out to her ten times more when I learned of the trials she is currently enduring. In her book, Wendy shares about how her husband was diagnosed with cancer shortly after they were married. Within the span of a few concise words, their reality was turned upside down. Yet thus far, the Lord has...
five-minute friday | red
Our first-time dinner guest crossed the threshold into our living room and surveyed his surroundings. Taking in the duo of cranberry swivel arm chairs and matching throw pillows accenting a milky white overstuffed couch, he complimented, “Ooh, I like the red!” Little did he know that those five well-intentioned words could set free a spool of memories, a long thread of history woven into the fabric of those chairs and cushions. He couldn’t possibly know of their original owner, gone two years this month. He never watched her laughter cause the chairs to rock back and forth. He had...
lonely | five-minute friday
Linking up once again with the lovely Lisa-Jo Baker for Five-Minute Friday. The challenge is to write for five minutes, unedited on the word of the week. This week's prompt is: Lonely.It’s that word that sits in the hollow pit of an empty stomach, longing to be filled. Its appetite is unmatched, and packaged fare does not satisfy. It sits as a guest at a feast, surrounded by a colorful spread of delicacies, and still goes hungry. It paces aisle after aisle of artificial choices and still walks to the parking lot empty-handed.Then it meets its destroyer, and gets pulled in for the...
tell me your story
She sat alone on the shoreline, hugging her knees to her chest, toes buried in the cool, damp sand. He came and sat next to her, shoulder to shoulder, in silence at first, together listening to the waves lap against the shore. “Tell me your story,” He said, almost in a whisper. Moments and years and trials and victories of words surged from her mouth in a torrent. He listened, then reached for a stick and scrolled a signature into the sand. Instantly, she knew. It was not her story – it was His. Her version was simply a strand of ongoing thread, sewn and woven into a far grander...
broken
broken are the shards of glass that cut the soles of those who trod oh-so-carefully amidst jagged edges and harsh words lashed broken are the sobs of the survivors, forgotten in the dark solitude behind closed doors, floors strewn with soggy, wadded tissues broken are the notes of praise, the claims of great is thy faithfulness in the face of fresh soil scooped up and tossed into newly dug graves broken are the fragments of bread that get passed from pew to pew the world over, pieces of one body that unites those who believe broken was the body, for you, for me, that day, on the cross...
An Open Letter to Grief
The following open letter to grief inspired the book, Letters to Grief This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. Thank you in advance for your support! *** Here's a two-minute video of me reading the first letter from the book: *** AN OPEN LETTER TO GRIEF Dear Grief, I shudder to refer to you as ‘dear.’ Yet, you have been with me for so long, by virtue of the fact that you have become a part of me, I suppose that has entitled you to earn the accolade of affection, though my heart grants it unwillingly. You are an enigmatic and elusive creature, a chameleon,...
living in the in-between
Where tubes of toothpaste and patience get squeezed from the bottom, the top and the in-between. Where time passes with the click of a mouse and drags like a whiny toddler down a grocery store aisle. Where graves are dug and happiness buried. Where plastic cups of Kool-Aid spill with overtired tears onto white carpet. Where bees and words sting, and hopes are ripped off like stubborn Band-Aids. Where muddy Velcro soles traipse across our desires and the sticky mop leaves streaks on the linoleum floor of our longings....
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