A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:4). Peter’s dad was a Control Freak and the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe. Peter had warned me. Still, I wasn’t prepared for the actual experience. In February of 1999, Peter’s parents came from England to… Read More Saying Good-bye to the Center of the Universe
My What-I-Am-Looking-for-in-a-Husband List started with just a few basic traits. Christian. Intelligent. Good with Kids. Sense of Humor. And Athletic. Sounds reasonable, right? But as I moved through my twenties—marked in some way by too many men—the list expanded and morphed. Each failed relationship sent me back to the list with a bright red pen.… Read More When You Want to Get Married
Last Tuesday I was a bit strung out. I had to make an unexpected trip into the city to help direct a rehearsal for the Christmas production I had written. Opening night was Friday, and the final scene wasn’t coming together. The pressure was on to sort it out. To make it meaningful. To pierce… Read More A Sticky Little Gift
It’s been called an epidemic. And rightly so. The statistics are staggering. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 43% of children in America now live without their Father. And that number continues to grow. Research abounds on the possible effects of this reality—connecting Fatherlessness to everything from high school dropouts to substance abuse to incarceration. But more… Read More On Dad and Dating
My mom loved to tell the story of when I was almost three and her belly was bulging with my brother and we were doing the laundry in the basement. Evidently, I climbed to the top of a mountain of dirty clothes and issued a decree. “Mommy, let’s name our baby Kenny.” Undoubtedly, it wasn’t… Read More Becoming Sibs
“A time to seek, and a time to lose.” (Ecclesiastes 3:6) My mother’s mother, Grandma Ruby, was born on January 12, 1909, in a little house with a crooked brick chimney in the-middle-of-nowhere, North Dakota. She was the middle daughter of five. And in her unpublished memoir, My Burden Bearer, she records just a few… Read More On Loss, Love, and Life
Yesterday was a good day. Daryl stayed on green at Kindergarten. A friend blessed me by bringing him home from school, so I could get some things done and Amelia could take an early nap. She’s not been well. In the afternoon, both kids were angels at the doctor’s office. Sitting side-by-side, arms around one… Read More Some Kind of Happy
“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.”… Read More In the Face of Danger
“Few experiences in life are as deep as the feelings we carry about our mothers.” (Jasmin Lee Cori, The Emotionally Absent Mother) We tumble into this world, itty bundles with awfully high expectations. Every last one of us. And for many years, most of those expectations are aimed at one well-intentioned, yet blessedly fallible, person—the… Read More On Mom: Our Secure Foundation
I grew up in a conspicuous family. I know now that not every head could have turned when we entered a restaurant or school event. But when I was the self-conscious age of twelve, it sure felt like it. My parents were brave, tenacious, intelligent, generous, compassionate, God-fearing, and physically disabled. They both had cerebral… Read More Why This Title? Part 2