writing when inspired about the often overlooked
Something is different this year! A letter to my brother, Gordon on his birthday… Dear Little Brother, It’s November 8th again, six years since you left us. And as on every anniversary, I release a red balloon for you, for our shared birthstone, a deep garnet. I take my red balloon to the clerk who…
Snow, blue sky, clouds, bare trees. . . I see them from my corner table at the Garden Cafe. The earth is resting. Maybe the earth knows best. Time to be . . . Just a few minutes to accomplish nothing Why does it feel so wasteful? The breaths come further apart Muscles unwind And…
It’s January 6, my brother’s 55th birthday. I’ve been thinking about him a lot today, grateful he was part of my life here on earth. He was and still is part of the weave of my life. I wasn’t planning to go to the lake today, only running out late in the afternoon to pick…
This morning, I am stopped by the quiet beauty of gray clouds and a thin sliver of pastel blue sky lining the horizon across the frozen snow-covered lake. What is it that makes me stop at the sight? get a lump in my throat? What is so unusual about a cloudy morning after a snowstorm…
written during a season of loss in 2006 – 7 months after Gordon died and 3 months after Galen lost his job at the church. My greatest fear – that I would lose the worship choir community which I found to be so life giving for me. I didn’t know how I would survive. Those…
LORD, Driving past the Lake today I notice a traffic control tower. I’ve never seen it before, but I see it now because the trees’s are “empty,” stripped of their leaves. Sort of like my life. . . When the “leaves” of my life are stripped away when I am “empty” I see you more…
I wear this necklace most days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Three year old Little Miss loves it . . . always notices when I wear it . . . Last year, after spending the night with her, she looked at me across the breakfast table, (I was still wearing my snowman pj’s) and seriously observed,…
October 27, 2011 LORD: Sometimes your beauty overwhelms my senses.. Like this evening . . . . What is it that captures my attention . . . makes me run back to the car for my camera? I need to stop and pay attention. It’s the sun that creates the unusual beauty this evening Without…
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) My REFUGE: My cousin Janet sends me an email on either Wednesday or Thursday of that week. I can still remember sitting at Carol’s computer reading her email to me. It was a short email . . . simply sharing verse that helped her when her dad died. …
(Start HERE for full “Before and After” series) It’s Monday Morning and Mom and Dad and I are flying home. Galen stays behind to help Carol with business matters. A week ago they were searching for him. Now we are headed home after the Memorial Service. As I sit in my window seat, I notice ….