simply me and jeans

My niece recently sent me a photo of my Daddy and I from Thanksgiving 2011. My heart had a quick, and bittersweet response. I smiled at how happy we both look and at the pride of being his daughter, but tears welled up in my eyes over how much I miss him.   I’ve been thinking about […]

Today someone asked me to say a few words about the importance of silence in the life of a believer. Funny thing – my brain went silent.  All I could think to say was that it’s hard for me AND I desperately need it. If I’m honest, I don’t have any wise words or intellectual […]

Who am I? That’s been a reoccurring question lately. To try and describe myself is daunting.  Probably because one description of who I’ve been since childhood is a “people pleaser.” The thought of making a bad first impression or misrepresenting myself is a real thing.  It’s much less a thing than it used to be, but it’s […]

Aging is such a strange thing.  We observe it so clearly in our youth and hardly recognize it at all as we experience it in real time. My stiff joints, spotty memory and lined skin is shocking at times but, for all intents and purposes, my brain still functions as if I were twenty something.  I catch […]

The songbirds are what I remember most. The crisp air was a gift as it blew through the open window each night until the sun rose at 4:30 am. The birds started singing as soon as the sunrays broke over the horizon. They didn’t stop until the darkness covered the world at 11 each evening. […]

Father, forgive my hesitant heart. Although I speak of your faithfulness and remember your love, I still falter when casting my net into the water.   Forgive this doubt that lives in the shadows of my disappointments and sorrows.  It doesn’t overtly speak but stirs up “rational” analysis and mitigation in the face of your call. Forward […]

One of the mysteries of my life is my brain. Why I crave a chocolate croissant and tea on hard days is beyond me but, I can’t argue with the comfort it brings my heart. I had it from a Parisian cafe almost everyday while Steve was in ICU. I hardly ate anything else during […]

My Daddy taught me to love gardening and I think of him every year around Valentine’s Day.  Why? A couple of reasons. One is that he always brought me the first Narcissus bloom around this time each year. As we reminisced about that, I told mom that I was sorry he didn’t bring them to […]

For as long as I can remember it’s been important for me to recognize and value the struggles of life.  To recognize that faith doesn’t mean ignoring pain and empty platitudes aren’t helpful when they make it seem like the “faithful” don’t suffer. To give voice to things that could make people feel different or […]

(This refers to a book my Dad loved called Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach) Sitting among giant cacti. Watching the sun set. The silence almost otherwordly. I hear some sort of bird flying by. It seems so out of place, as if it had lost its way in the world and ended up in […]