I’m short. For the most part, I don’t mind being short. But when I was growing up in a neighborhood full of bigger, older, meaner boys, being short was a real challenge. Especially when one of the boys’ favorite games involved out me at arm’s length and torturing me. I would swing my arms wildly, […]
Embracing the “Inconvenient”
“PEST!” “You’re such a nuisance!” “You are getting on my last nerve!” Those are things I heard a lot when I was younger. And the repetition of them left a remarkable impression on me: If you want to be loved, don’t be an inconvenience. And that particular goal (not to make others feel inconvenienced) became […]
When Grace Shows Up
Grace. Amazing Grace, actually. She’s one of my girlfriends who is nearest and dearest to my heart. I’ve loved her since I first met her, but then… Last fall, I started seeing a new counselor. My dear friend, Rick, had walked me through the initial steps of being diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but […]
Teach the Younger Ones
When I was a little girl, I dreamed of one day becoming a librarian. It seemed to me a dream come true to spend my hours among the friends – the book characters – I’d grown up with. Nancy Drew. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Ramona Quimby. I didn’t have an older sister, just a neighborhood full […]
Love Is Greater Than Walls
I was only a handful of months out of high school when I got my first assignment at my new job. I had always been a caretaker and nurturer. And so, I knew it was going to be difficult, but I said yes anyway – to being a part-time caretaker for a young hearing impaired, […]
Powerlessness
Powerlessness. Last week, you all discussed Chapter 2 of Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. This time last week, I was on my knees on cold linoleum, holding the hand of one of our veteran book discussion members as he walked into Jesus’s arms. And powerlessness was certainly one of the things I felt. It’s […]
Deluged
Several years ago, one of my friends had her first baby. She was 20 and had married a military man. Pretty soon after Junior’s birth, Papa deployed and Little Mama found herself alone with an infant – an experience that, as the baby of her family, she had never before faced. It was daunting. When Junior […]
The Book Discussion Returns!
I’ve always been a fan of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. A couple of years ago, a very well-read editor friend of mine asked me why I would enjoy reading people’s sad stories. I had never thought about it before, but I realized that the thing that appeals to me about these stories isn’t hearing about […]
Walking Home
This morning, I got to spend an hour cradling, rocking, and singing to a most precious newborn bundle of joy. Less than a week old, he is the foster child of one of the families in my church. And though I know nothing of the circumstances of this little love-bug’s short life up to this […]
Presence
I think that the first time our mutual friend introduced me and Daniel, she was trying to play matchmaker. It didn’t work. He and I instinctively knew that we were meant to be just friends, and we became good friends, very fast. He was exactly the kind of boy my dad wouldn’t want me spending […]
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