simply me and jeans

I was at Starbucks for 2 hours today trying to make progress on this book we’re writing. That didn’t happen. Instead, I spent an hour talking to a young man about college, how tired he was, trying to encourage him and another hour trying to get my computer to work. Because I’d lost all focus, […]

The last three weeks have been crazy! They’ve not only been the darkest and loneliest weeks of my life but also the most powerful, impacting and supported time of my life.  I know that’s contradictory.  The whole journey has been a picture of contradiction.  Death and life.  Faith and fear. Solitude and support. Waiting and […]

As I walked back to the hotel tonight, I passed the workers setting up for the Sunday market and suddenly realized we have been in Paris more than a week.  Last Sunday we bought some bread, cheese and veggies and had a solemn picnic in the park before going to see how Steve was doing […]

As I listened to my oldest daughter talk about the life of a young mom the other day, I clearly remembered writing this journal entry years ago.  The feelings of loneliness, boredom, doubt and exhaustion came flooding back and I had to rummage through old journals until I found it.  Not because it’s all that good; but, […]

As I talked to someone about marriage the other day, I remembered a guy from high school that scoffingly reacted to my beliefs about “casual” sex with “So, you’re literally only going to be with one person your whole life?”  That attitude is the norm these days and it worries me for so many people […]

It’s baby season in our town.  They’re popping out all over the place. Beautiful and precious babies that are poised to learn all kinds of things from this world and the people around them.That’s both terrifying and promising in the world we have created for ourselves. I remember sitting on the edge of my bed […]

Steve and I were lucky enough to lead a marriage conference at our church recently.  Let me just say that it was terrifying!  On the one hand, being with people that we know and love made it easier to step out into something new; but, on the other, they were people that we really know […]

Homemade cotton quilts have a smell – a  mix of dust, smoke from winter fireplaces, hints of grass and soil from summer picnics and the musty fragrance of a cedar chest. They also tell a story.  The pink dogwood print from a bridesmaid dress.  The blue calico from a pair of short overalls that Mamaw […]

“You get a line and I’ll get a pole, We’ll go fishin’ at the crawdad hole, Honey, baby mine.” My dogs weren’t sure what to do when I started singing that little ditty yesterday.  We were walking past a culvert when I noticed two huge crawdad holes in the water and immediately thought, “I wish […]

Over the years, I’ve come to notice that life is much more about uncertainty than it is about certainty.  There are a few things I feel sure of, but on a bad day I can even question those.  That’s the journey, isn’t it?  We don’t know what tomorrow holds.  We don’t always understand why yesterday […]