Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
I used to think that the relentless ache between my shoulder blades was from missing wings. We are meant to be angels on earth, I believed. And then, I forgot, so caught up in the details of life, consumed with ambition, and then facing the daily struggle of chronic illness. Until I saw this image. […]
Read More
Choose the type of foundation to build. I want a foundation strong enough to carry me through hard times, yet flexible and able to adapt in the moment. Something sustaining, and solid, but not rigid. Set your footings 2 feet across. Two feet on the ground, firmly planted, well balanced, not alone, but interdependent, both partaking […]
Read More
Oh, to jump without fear – a skill long passed, although leaps of faith, I still take – never too aged for those. I remember when speed equated with freedom – a constant race – now I walk with careful measure, fresh air still accompanying pace. Never could accomplish a cartwheel – coordination not amongst […]
Read More“What about my marriage?” a naive, much younger me once asked a psychic. “The foundation is firm,” the woman responded hesitantly, “but not without cracks.” Cracks? It was more like gaping holes. Easy to see now, in retrospect, but at the time, I was convinced we were rock solid. The suggestion of anything less insulted […]
Read More
Inquiry is a trait teachers hope to instil in students – the ability to not just take for granted that which they have been taught, but the curiosity to question evidence, and to research beyond what is given. Questions form the basis of a reflective life. This week’s challenge was to think about the questions […]
Read More
I’m drawn to the details – a knot hole in a tree – hoping my close-up will reveal a curiosity. The inside of Saguaro, ancient and grey – reveals the inner bones, speaks to a better day. A roadside encounter brought me face to tail with […]
Read More“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss.” – Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Home is on my brain this week, as we […]
Read More
Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate introduces the shameful story of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, an organization run by Georgia Tann, a woman who made money by abducting poor children from their homes and selling them into adoption. Wingate’s novel imagines what life would be like for siblings taken from their homes and […]
Read More
“Duck under the table and see what you can find,” was Father’s pat answer to the question of what was for dessert. He was like that: quick-witted and full of comebacks. My husband is the same, and I compound the problem by walking into it every time: “What have you got on tomorrow?” I’ll ask, […]
Read More
Children understand the mechanics of accomplishment: take a risk, try and try again, and bask in the accolades that follow. As I grow older, I wonder at what point in life I lost that simple understanding. Now, as I watch my granddaughters, I feel compelled to regain some of that old spunk: tackle the new, […]
Read More
