Have you ever tried to be thankful in the midst of grief? It hurts. When you stand, face grief and loss head-on, and say “I chose to find something in this to be thankful for,” the pain is physical, visceral, wrenching. Looking back, what I’m most thankful for this year is that it’s over. 2010…

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*Warning: if you’re the least bit squeamish, skip the first paragraph.* Photo credit Several weeks ago, our (my) cat limped into our house, skin gaping open from the side of her neck. After a few phone calls and a trip to the vet ER (shocking but true — there are emergency rooms for animals), we…

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One week you wake up, crawl out of bed, pour a cup of coffee, enjoy it, and realize that you feel ok. You remember the follow-up you were supposed to do at work. Your grocery list is complete so you don’t have to run back five times for all the items you forgot. When the…

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Unsettled. Restless. Emotional. Uncertain. In-between. Anxious. Heavy. It’s difficult to describe, difficult to write. I’ve wrestled all day with whether to mention it at all. But you are my friends, and I know that you are pray-ers. I’m not sure the nature of this, whether spiritual, emotional, or physical. Many viruses swirl through town. One…

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Life has a way of turning upside-down for everyone. It happens in a flash. One minute everything lies before you like a farm valley in July, ripe with possibilities and opportunities. The next, the ground rips apart and it all disappears into a dark ugly chasm… and you’re falling headlong into it. And it’s precisely…

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I feel normal. That has not been normal for… years. Last fall I finally acknowledged the stormy fog in which I trudged, halted, sometimes crumbled, constantly denied. It was depression, or for those of you who shy away from psychology, it was a dark night of the soul. My dark night. My soul. “Dark” doesn’t…

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