Updated on June 26, 2020
The days of small things
“I see you’re climbing mountains again young lady!” an older gentleman’s words startle me out of my own thoughts as we pass each other on the sidewalk. I’m walking up a hill a couple of miles from my house, and I won’t lie, it does feel a bit like a mountain. I don’t immediately recognize the man. But then, he smiles, and I see it. It’s George, my physical therapy buddy from a few years back. His affinity for calling me young lady keeps him high on my list of all-time favorite people.
Posted on June 12, 2020
Choosing Words
Tongue-tied. That’s how I have found myself lately. Despite the fact that I have read a lot of words; listened to a lot of words; and even said a lot of words about all that is going on in our world, every day I am more convinced that I know nothing. The world seems ablaze with words and thoughts. It feels as though every sentence out of our mouths could be used against us to draw lines around ourselves and others. And I am not one for choosing up sides; so I find myself retreating a bit from the battle.
Updated on May 29, 2020
Willing to be salt and light on a regular Friday?
So here we are at the end of this strange month of May, and life still feels far from normal. Re-opening the world while continuing to fight an invisible virus has proved to be more complicated and more polarizing than we imagined. Arguments rage around the globe over the right and wrong way to do a thing none of us has ever done before. And in the middle of the debate about mask-wearing, the media cycle is taken over with the story of a man who is denied the right to breathe. And an evil we thought was so well hidden is exposed yet again. The earth keeps on spinning, but it feels like it just might be tilted in the wrong direction. And I wonder what we are called to do about it all here in the middle of our regular Friday.
Updated on May 22, 2020
The summer of no plans
Hey, mom, it’s summer, remember?! A boy argues with me about bedtime, and it catches me off guard. Summer? Oh, yeah, summer. The strangest school year ever is finally in the books. And the next two months of blank calendar squares are staring me down; daring me to try and fill them. I have no idea what to do next. Actually, I have a tremendous amount to do. It’s just my boys who are aimless. And they see no need for bedtime. So here we go; navigating our way into summer with no plans.
Posted on May 1, 2020
A May we don’t recognize
So, is this really May? A two-month-long string of snow days? I’m not quite sure I recognize it. Normally, I greet May with a steely kind of preparedness wielding Field Day popsicles and last orchestra concert programs as weapons. I never imagined I’d greet it wearing a mask?
Updated on April 10, 2020
What is good about this strange Good Friday?
Why do we call this day Good Friday? At some point today one of my boys will ask me this question. And in the middle of this unsettling time when nothing feels good or normal, I will struggle to answer. He will keep pushing the question, though, “What is so good about Jesus dying? Shouldn’t it be called Bad Friday?” I will be tempted to agree with him.
Updated on April 3, 2020
Weird things I am missing … and what I am learning
On Wednesday, the Governor of Georgia stood in the bright Atlanta sunshine surrounded by health and legal officials along with a very energetic sign language interpreter and ended our 2019-2020 school year. The words were barely out his mouth before my 5th grader collapsed in my lap in tears. “No, no, no. He can’t end school. We have to go back. I am finally a 5th grader. And my pencil box is still at school,” he sobbed onto my shoulder. And I just cried with him. I will never get used to life being like this.
Posted on March 27, 2020
So, how are you doing?
This sign made me cry yesterday. The skies were deliriously blue, the sun was shining and the park was closed? The silence was deafening. “Just relax. Everything is all going to be alright,” a friend’s text pops up on my phone and tears blur again in the edges of the sunshine. And when, in the middle of a work project, I am simultaneously asked how to find the volume of a rectangular prism and solve a molecular fraction, I slam into the reality that I am at the end of myself. These are the strangest of days. And I am fighting hard to pretend like I am fine. What about you? How are you doing?
Updated on March 16, 2020
Peace. Be Still. And wash your hands.
These are the days of people grocery shopping with gloves on, buying toilet paper by the case and backing away from handshakes. A nervous store clerk scrubs the counter with a pile of wipes and tries to take my dollars without touching my hand. I have to answer a million questions to enter a school where everyone has known my name for 12 years. And I realize as I greet a friend that I haven’t hugged anyone in weeks. This is what March of 2020 looks like. And we are all finding it hard to get our bearings.
Updated on March 6, 2020
How to give up
Today is the beginning of a season. A season which always surprises me with its entrance. As it lands on the calendar, I find myself thinking, “How is it Lent already? Didn’t we just finish Christmas?” And my boys are tossing around ideas of what to give up for this season of repenting. Homework, long pants, and broccoli are a few of their top choices. You can see that we are clearly making an impact with our religious teaching over here … such sacrifice. It sure will be tough giving up broccoli for Lent!
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