The Trouble I’ve Seen

Eleven years ago today, a ruddy-faced doctor in a white coat took off his glasses and informed me that there was a raging tumor living inside my eyeball.  News so strange I had to ask for it to be repeated, the words cancer and melanoma all jumbling up inside my head with other strange words […]

[Continue reading...]

It will all end up happy

My daughter’s been hurting lately.  But not in a way that needs a band aid.  She’s trying to navigate a world where things don’t make sense and friends can turn and love can end.  People who were steady are instead shifting and purple starts to just look black.  She’s entering into a world where problems […]

[Continue reading...]

Blogging the Bible: Jonah and the Whale

I’ve always seen the story of Jonah and the whale as a strange and rather far-fetched consequence of running from God’s calling.  But now I see it as a beautiful lesson in forgiveness, and God’s equal bounty of love, and of what incredible lengths God will go to in order to teach his children about […]

[Continue reading...]

Wednesday Playlist

There are few mediums in art that invoke immediate emotion.  Pictures, whether painted in oil or shot through a lens, may or may not bring up feelings of peace, or nostalgia, or intrigue. Words can move mountains, but it takes a bit of work on behalf of the reader.  But music.  From the first moment […]

[Continue reading...]

Pearls of death: a poem

The plastic curves, they pant in tulle and diamonds bright For kitchens gleaming of soapstone Buying and baking and wasting. — It’s a water-soaked culture and fear is a droplet of oil so blend and buy and lust and smile sail on past the wrinkled lines. — Sleep is hard and mean and honest It […]

[Continue reading...]

The Perfume Basket

A few months back, my son dropped my bottle of perfume on the bathroom floor, and rose-scented shards littered the tile.  So off I went to Nordstrom to replace it.  I stood there for hours smelling and wafting and scrunching up my nose. Finally I chose one, and as I was paying, the saleslady said […]

[Continue reading...]

Odd and Curious Thoughts of the Week

(1) In our house, we can’t say the words stupid, dumb, or hate.  Which is why we don’t have cable television and ban Fox News. Today, however, I managed to say all three words in one sentence with regard to a jar of pesto I couldn’t open. I’m an excellent example. (2) For a Girl […]

[Continue reading...]

Freefall

I had a dream a few months back that I was dangling on a roller coaster, my hands gripping the sides of a drop-off that went straight down into blackness.  I was in my car with my children, for heaven’s sakes.  I couldn’t risk their lives letting my clunky Chevy Tahoe loose on these metal […]

[Continue reading...]

Fan Mail

So the big important news this week was that Taylor Swift’s fan mail was found unopened in a dumpster.  All those glittery heart raspberry letters wasted, dumped by the used syringes and old saggy diapers.  Someone found them, and THANK HEAVENS alerted the appropriate authorities.  It just really makes me teary-eyed that we Americans [that […]

[Continue reading...]

Let them eat toast

I’m always annoyed when the host of a cooking show tastes her food at the end of the episode, rolling her eyes back in ecstasy.  Not only does she magically create beef rolls, arugula salad, and a pear tart in under twenty minutes, but then she brags on herself.  “Oh my gosh,” she says into […]

[Continue reading...]