The first time she came to my house she barely spoke. The second time she came to my house she asked me how much my new vacuum cleaner cost. I fluttered around the answer shocked she would ask, knowing the item was ridiculously overpriced, and too embarrassed to tell her the truth. I knew how many hours she needed to…
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When life wants to bully you
A friend and I talked recently about a couple we know struggling with significant work/life balance issues. We sympathized and tried to brainstorm a few ways to help them, until we finally concluded that regardless of the amount of help we offer, it’s simply placing a band-aid over a deep wound. Nothing we do can fix the larger issue at hand,…
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Growing pains
It is Friday of the first “week” of school, if one can call it that after only two days of class. The quiet here sinks into my bones. It builds me up again after a long summer of squabbles and hard days and incessant machinery chugging away outside my back door every day, all day. The kids leave and I…
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Singing each other home
We saw them swaying on the dock, arms locked, mouths open in unison. As the boat pulled closer to the edge of the island, their voices floated across the water reaching our ears. Girls of all ages, t-shirt-clad and pony-tailed, sang us a welcome and a benediction. They sang my camp-bound daughters home to the island with words about God’s…
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A bookish list: because I can’t always be pensive
My friend, Michelle, tagged me to list ten books that have stayed with me in some way. The rules: Take only a few minutes and don’t think too hard. They don’t have to be the “right” books or great works of literature, just one which affected you in some way. Please. This is like picking a favorite child, which, let’s be…
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