One night, we were awakened by the ringing of the telephone. My husband, Darryl, got up to answer it in the living room. I was not fully awake, but I was very much aware that it was deep in the night. Phone calls this late are never good news. I lay there struggling with the reality of that and trying to pretend that maybe the phone hadn’t rang, or somehow it would just be a wrong number, or some other benign happening. Continue reading “What a Relief!”
I was at the store just a couple of days ago, and a lady in the aisle next to me was talking on her cell phone. She was talking to a man. How do I know that? Well…she was using the speaker phone feature. Now, I’m not an eaves dropper by nature, but she was talking on speaker phone in a public place. It wasn’t exactly a private conversation. Continue reading “Hell is Always Open”
My husband and I went on a trip to Colorado last fall. This was my first visit to that state, outside of the Denver airport. I was excited to see the changes in topography as we traveled along. We left the lush, green hills and clear, sparkling rivers of southwest Missouri, discovered the endless beauty in the flat plains of Kansas, and slowly crept up into the high plains of eastern Colorado where I spotted the first antelope I had ever seen in the wild. Continue reading “The Balance of Nature”
Quite possibly the best thing my oldest daughter, Dayton, has ever sent me is this picture of a domestic cat wearing a lion’s mane. Yeah…I’m easy to please. But just look at him there – wearing that mane like it’s just what he’s supposed to do. His eyes flash with confidence. He’s not the least bit unsettled. He’s not confused about who he is – there’s no identity crisis here. He’s a cat, and he knows it. He also knows he hails from the same biological family as the King of the Jungle. And so he dons the synthetic mane with pride and conviction of who he is on the inside. Continue reading “The Lion Inside”
The year my mother and brother died, we decided to have a big ole family Christmas at my parents’ house. Everyone would be there from my mom’s side of the family. We even decided to draw names and exchange gifts. My mom and brother had only died 23 days apart from each other. It started in October, so we were all still very raw and pretty much going through life like zombies. Continue reading “Life is Like a Chocolate Pie”
On a recent trip to my local grocery store, I spent way too much time trying to find the fly swatters. It is summer, and a few of those pesky little critters found their way into my house. I finally stopped to ask a gentleman employed by the store if he knew where I could find a fly swatter.
He turned to me and asked, “A what?”
“A fly swatter,” I replied.
Now, the gentleman crept a few steps closer to me, and inquired again, “A what?”
I thought maybe the man was slightly hard of hearing, so I answered again, “A fly swatter”. This time I could see on his face that it wasn’t that he couldn’t hear me…he couldn’t understand me. Very quickly I added, “Fly swatter…F. L. Y. swatter”.
Touchdown! I realized the gentleman finally knew what I was saying.
“Oh…a fly swatter! With your accent, I couldn’t understand what you were saying,” he proceeded to explain as he led me to the item. Continue reading “Sometimes You Feel Like the Fly – Sometimes You Feel Like the Swatter”
There are a lot of things I miss about the church I grew up in – seeing my aunts, uncles, and cousins on a regular basis is pretty high on the list – but those fellowship meals are some of my fondest memories.
Of course it was wonderful to spend time with all the members of the church, but…the food…
the food…
the FOOD!
That’s what I miss! Yes…I was raised Baptist. Baptist need to eat. Together. Often. Continue reading “The Fellowship of the Brethren”
Oftentimes, my husband asks me things like this:
“What do you want to do this evening?”, “Where would you like to eat?”, “Would you rather go to the movies or stay in tonight?”.
My answers are usually something along these lines:
“Whatever you want to do”, “Wherever is fine with me”, “Doesn’t matter to me”.
These types of responses are not what he would like to hear most of the time. However, they are actually the truth. I don’t care what we are doing, I just want to be with him. Being with him is enough for me. It’s not about what we are doing…it’s that we are together. That’s the prize for me – simply being with him. Continue reading “In The Presence of God”
More than 16 years ago now, I stood at my bathroom vanity on the phone and listened as my father explained to me how he didn’t think we were going to get much of a break between the death of my mother – whom we had buried only two weeks prior – and the death of my brother, Robin. I struggle with writing this now almost as much as I struggled with comprehending the reality of the situation then. My brother had been diagnosed with cancer about two years before. He was five years older than me, and had been my hero growing up. He was Superman. He was adventurous, athletic, brave, beautiful, and I was pretty sure he could leap tall buildings in a single bound. It was unthinkable that at just 38 years old he had already found his kryptonite, but it was unbearable to face the loss of both my mother and my brother at the same time. Continue reading “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go”
Our youngest daughter, Autumn, moved to Hawaii this past September. She wanted to have an adventure. Just a few days ago her adventure turned into something she hadn’t quite bargained for. She was sound asleep, having worked late the night before, when the alarms first went out. Continue reading “From Tranquility to Terror”
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