Because Darth Vader Isn’t the Boss of Me
Apr 25th
We stood in her kitchen talking when she made a remark aimed straight for my jugular. White knuckled, my hands grasped the countertop so I wouldn’t shake from the hit.
Sometimes words speak just as loud as actions. Words can dice a heart into a thousand pieces and no matter how you curl inward, you can’t hold them all.
When I drove home later that afternoon, I watched as the road turned to liquid and I felt myself travel down a too familiar street:
A good friend: F
Kristen’s grown-up report card: F, F, F.
My how quickly my mind gets lost in a dangerous More >
Redemption of the Pink Hospital
Apr 18th
I held my Daddy’s hand, my brown hair blowing in the breezeway as we walked into my Great-Grandmother Elizabeth’s nursing home. Actually, we didn’t call the bright pink building a nursing home, we called it the pink hospital. I loved visiting Great-Grandmother because she smiled a real I’m thrilled to see you! smile when she saw me, and she generously gave me peppermints from the red antique depression glass candy jar.
But I usually wrinkled my nose at the smell of the pink hospital,?a combination of?Clorox, Bengay, and bathroom stuff.
The place felt like death coming soon.
When Great-Grandmother Elizabeth passed away, so did More >
For the Days You Think You?re the Only One Not in the Club
Apr 13th
Sometimes, the more your dream is woven into your deep places, the more you see it out in the world.
When I ached to be a mama but couldn’t get pregnant, I saw pregnant women everywhere. No matter where my feet traveled – grocery stores, movies, church – there they were, members of an exclusive club where everyone knew the password but me.
Of course, this wasn’t true at all. But tender things longed for and not held distorted my vision.
As my thirtysomething self looks around the?dining room table at three shrinky dink versions of my husband and me, I see plain More >
The Truth About Home and Moving Often
Apr 11th
I haven’t lived in Oklahoma for eighteen years, but in many ways Oklahoma still lives in me.
It feels like home.
It’s funny how a place can seep so far into your bones you feel its soil fertilizing your heart long after its soil rests under your feet.
When I went to college forty miles from my childhood home, I assumed that if I met a boy, I would meet one with solid Oklahoma blood who had designs on staying put.?As it turns out, I did meet a good Oklahoma boy, but he most definitely had no desire to stay put. So after he More >
When You Need Some Change Right Now Today
Apr 9th
Excuse me for being a little down today, folks, but the last 24 hours have brought me some extreme weather whiplash and I am not. a. fan.
Snow in April: now, that just ain’t right. {But I’m gonna whisper this complaint because we’ve been known to get snow in May and -?whimper -??even early June.}
I know a lot of places like to claim the if-you-don’t-like-the-weather-then-wait-a-minute-it’ll-change mantra, but I’ve never lived anywhere that does this in style like Colorado.
On a similar but different note, we were supposed to move this summer, but it turns out we are officially staying put. So far, I’ve More >
and
