This past weekend was difficult. Tensions ran high, nerves were frayed, voices were raised. I was reminded, for the umpteenth time, that Matt and I are Grace and Whit’s weather, and though they exhibit it differently they are both keenly aware of our moods. It’s a big responsibility, being someone else’s sky: when I’m stormy, [...]
I read this extraordinary list of 25 Rules for Moms With Sons on The Good Men Project. And I cried, and then I read it again. There’s such a turbulent sea of feeling under the surface when it comes to my children. It doesn’t take much to pierce me at my core, to bring tears, [...]
Not long ago I wrote about a Gail Godwin quote I love: “The more you respect and focus on the singular and the strange, the more you become aware of the universal and infinite.” There’s so much in this that makes sense to me. Sometimes I’m struck by a tiny detail about someone that seems [...]
For decades my role model was my mother. Now it’s my daughter. I’m just the woman who was lucky enough to come between the two. – Anna Quindlen I looked through my photographs and was surprised at how few I actually have of Grace and my mother together. They have always had a special bond, [...]
I wanted her to see that the only life worth living is a life full of love; that loss is always part of the equation; that love and loss conjoined are the best opportunity we get to live fully, to be our strongest, our most compassionate, our most graceful selves. -Pam Houston Email this post
“The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” – Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) “What Ruth has known all along: what will happen can’t be stopped. Aim for grace.” – Ann Beattie [...]
It’s no secret my life is running into a headwind right now. I’m still walking, but it is slow going, and I feel like I’m facing big waves and a strong current. I know enough about the tides of my own emotions to know this will ebb, and probably soon. But what won’t change, I [...]
Everyone has moments – weeks, months, seasons – of sadness, fear, grief, anxiety. That’s the human condition, right? And we walk through the darkness, because, really, what choice do we have? I can’t count the number of times in my life where I’ve felt like throwing up my hands, giving up, burrowing under the covers. [...]
New questions we have fielded this Easter: Those crosses that we saw, stacked on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, what were they? Oh, people carry them to walk on the same path Jesus took on Good Friday? When he walked up Via Dolorosa, right? And then that place in the Church [...]
Life seems to flood by, taking our loves quickly in its flow. In the growth of children, in the aging of beloved parents, time’s chart is magnified, shown in its particularity, focused, so that with each celebration of maturity there is also a pang of loss. This is our human problem, one common to parents, [...]
