Even the sun realizes it’s impossible to shine at 5am. With sleepy eyes and dragging feet, I lugged my suitcases, much lighter than when I arrived, down the steps of the little upstairs apartment that has been home for a few days, toward my friends and their car that would take me to the airport. It’s the day to leave. It feels like I’ve been gone longer than the number of days passed would suggest,...
I woke up just before my alarm went off at 3 am this morning, and I was so glad it didn’t jar me out of a dead sleep. It’s always better when I’m able to drift back to awake. As soon as I opened my bedroom door the smell of Folger’s classic roast hit me in the face and I was thankful for a coffee pot that can be programmed the night before. What an...
Pretty little words are everywhere. Words crafted, fonted, and overlaid onto pretty little pictures. Some make us laugh, some stir up our loyalty, some make us dream a bigger dream than we dreamt a minute ago, and some pull us deep into old bitter or old sweet memories. Words have a lot of power. Words can be True and Not True. Sometimes the exact same words are true in one instance, but not true in...
Maybe I was somewhere between 4 and six years old? I made a decision of something I was going to do, so I walked through our little open plan living room with multi-colored orangey shag carpet. Stepped down one little step, passed my dad where he was watching the news (boring), then stepped up another little step in the dining room kitchen area where my mom was at the stove making dinner. I'm fairly certain...
Last night at a class I’ve been attending at church, we were reminded to surround ourselves with the right people for our journey. Those who help develop, encourage and grow us. Which went right along with some other things I’ve been studying and thinking about. The opposite of those who develop, encourage and grow us are those who don’t. Those who discourage our convictions, enable our destructive appetites and weaken our character and dignity and...
The image of, or maybe it was the feeling of, taking a deep first breath came to my mind the other day as I was reading. That thought or memory of taking a deep breath after holding my breath for a while stuck with me and made me think of different first breaths I've taken. What first breaths can you recall? Memorable first breaths follow memorable times of anticipation. Anticipation is generated when something is...
How do you know if that recipe you just downloaded for the best lemon cake on the planet, really is? Could it be a better recipe than the one you already have? How can you know it's not? Sometimes we have really strong opinions about things that we haven't even baked for ourselves. I'm not trying to climb up in your oven, but maybe it's time to turn it on and do a little baking....
