When I was a little girl, I remember this so clearly. I was perhaps eight years old or there abouts, and at the time of this memory, I was standing in the bathroom beside a cupboard used for storing towels. I asked my mother this question: “Am I good?” My mother answered me as best …
In our deepest parts there is a craving to be needed. To know that our lives are necessary. Essential. We want to live for something- something bigger than just ourselves. And we want to impact someone- beyond ourselves. I listen to many stories and each one means something to me. Her’s was special. She told …
Grace or criticism? I have contemplated grace and its place in my life for many years now. I have wondered at its significance, its practical purpose. I have tried to make sense of it. Tried to understand it. And the only way I know how is to put it into the context of my own …
I have been reflecting the past few days on recovery. Recovery means different things to different people, as we are all aware. It means different things depending on the extent of the recovery period. A weekend bender requires less recovery than a broken leg. Of course, this goes without saying. A person recovering from painful, …
I preach caring as the underlying, fundamental reason for why I teach. It is what drew me into teaching. It is why I stay. It’s always interesting to know why a person feels strongly for or against something they believe. And the reason I am FOR caring- FOR seeing people as potential, FOR believing that …
Minus 37 with the wind chill factor. That one hour school delay affording the buses an extra hour off for idling- it should have been the ticket, really. There I was. Bleary-eyed from a night of restless sleep- worried over deadlines to come, papers to write, classes to teach and examinations to prepare for, jarred …
Dear Son: It is three days past Christmas and yet the varied strands of lights on our tree still burn brightly, as if they truly were soft candle-light glow. I write you tonight, pensively. For there has been much on my mind since the mad scramble of Christmas morning. There has been much weighing on …
Thirty-one years today since that pick-up truck plowed into her little car, leaving her motionless. The spark snuffed out. Leaving her to sit and moan the occasional word. Rubbing constantly at her crusted eye, still swollen shut. Her lifeless hands and legs. No animated gestures to light up a room. They’re nearly all but gone, …
Black, velvet sky melts into night-time darkness. It’s something below freezing. And I think to myself, ‘here we go again’. It’s another ‘up-too-late’ week-night, and I find myself driving snow-dusted roads riddled with pot-holes. This is becoming a habit I wish I could break; that is, the custom of making lesson plans in a creepy …
Some of my most real writing- the most vulnerable, transparent material I write, comes from an experience in which I mess up royally and then learn a few lessons in the process. Yesterday was one of those days. But first: I don’t want my life or any of the lives in which I am in …
I take it all in. The sky, with bits of pink and grey- strips of color extended across the remains of the day. We head for home- trying to beat the moon. The last One’s bike freezes up. Something about the front brakes- and I’m no bike technician. So while the others push for home, …
My son is celebrating his thirteenth birthday this month. I can hear him up in his room right now playing risk with two of his cousins, and my heart just swells with love. Here are thirteen things I now know- that I didn’t know then…and all because of becoming Sam’s Mama. I know more of …