The Weighted Moments That May Be Passing You (& Me) By

“Will you cut my mouth?” he asks, holding out a butter knife towards his pumpkin. We’re gathered around the kitchen table, five pumpkins and five people. Slimy seeds with dangling orange pumpkins strings are being slung into a glass bowl for later, and we pass the stencil blades and tiny plastic saws around between us.…

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Meeting Him Between the Lines

“What do you see?” I ask her, holding out two hands like an amateur photographer, framing a scene out the bedroom window. Photo: Stephen Wong, Creative Commons, cc license She flops closer on the bed, scooting up on her elbows and begins to stare through the window, out across the front lawn, and into the…

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When Our Lives Don’t Fit the Pretty Analogies

I imagine you’re heard the rock and sand analogy too? It’s the story we hear from self-help books and spiritual retreats about ordering our lives and prioritizing what’s really important. And the way it goes is this: a woman is handed five or six stone boulders and a pile of sand. Photo: Ted Scodras, Creative…

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What I Never Expected to See in My Daughter’s Homework Today

“I’ll let you hold the broom, Mom,” she smirked as we strode across the parking lot. A deep white bucket in one hand, I crossed the blacktop, balancing a long-handled home-made ladle in the other. Tenth grade Morgan stepped primly beside me, laughing and pretending to ignore me. Photo: Bill Benzon, Creative Commons cc license…

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When We Stop Seeing the Tape

Coffee and the morning sunshine rush my senses, illuminate the laminated map on my kitchen table, and highlight a few of last night’s crumbs. I’ve been soaking in the words from the Biblical book of Nehemiah these last few months, returning to them again and again as I review for this weekend’s women’s retreat. Photo:…

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