Beating Burn-Out and Burning Long

It floods and crashes, this wall of raindrops thundering and crescendo-ing around us. This is the second sheet of water this afternoon, long roaring showers that drift in my open windows, batter the leaves, and rush in tiny tsunamis down the side of the road. Photo: DeShaun Craddock, Creative Commons, cc license Water soaks into…

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Creating a Home in Life’s Chaos

Standing in line on a Minneapolis street in 2006, we started crying. Wiping tears off our cheeks, we laughed self-consciously. “It doesn’t feel right to be here without Mom, Dad and Jeremy, huh?” I said. My sister nodded. Photo: Carolyn Pinke Fifteen years earlier in war-torn West Africa, our family of five lived in a…

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Korean Octopus, and You, and Me

“Whoa, octopus! Let’s get some.” He’s peering in past a frosted glass window to a ten-inch package of purple tentacled octopus legs coiled tightly, their suction cups pointed out at us. In an international Asian grocery store with green tea popsicles and dried mango slices, I love that seven year old Daniel is brave and…

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The Call on Line Two

It started last Monday night, but I didn’t have the courage to say anything until Tuesday. Well, Wednesday, honestly, if you count non-husband people. Because I whispered it to him Tuesday morning, the shy awkward news about an embarrassing uncomfortable pain. Photo: Flavia, Flickr user And you don’t want to know. Just nod and murmur…

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