It happens every year in February. “I hate Valentine’s Day” is heard from the person sitting across from me, on the couch in my office. It is often followed by a litany of reasons, often related to the loneliness of being single or memories of a lost love that continues to haunt them. I know …
Having emotionally prepared myself for a month, I walked into church yesterday knowing I walked into the epicenter of grief. Yesterday was the last church service to be led by our pastor, Rob James. Rob has enriched our life together in countless ways. His most powerful influence has been the ability to create a safe …
It’s funny how you don’t realize the role something fills in your life, until it’s not there… As my followers know, I have been struggling with repeated infections since the holidays. In response, I have returned to the cautious way of living that colored my life during IV chemo. Grocery carts are carefully sanitized before …
My dear Amber, Our history is rich with letter writing. A letter for going off to college. A letter when conflicts between us needed the reflection inherent in letter writing. Letter writing when I thought cancer might take me from you while you still needed a mother’s wisdom. And now, I am writing a letter …
Those of you that know something about me may recognize that self-promotion is not something I am comfortable with. In fact, I think I’m allergic to it. I get all itchy and scratchy just thinking about it. I just like to let things happen organically, in their own time and in their own way. Shocker! …
My heart sank… At the end of the session, my client had asked if she could purchase a copy of my book from me. Normally, I would be pleased that someone was interested in my book, but this was different. I knew this client was a conservative Christian and was worried that learning I was …
I saw it there, nestled among the other plants as I finally planted the bulbs from our Easter lily. It was a tiny purple columbine plant. It made me smile to myself. I reflected on the previous spring, when my daughter, Brie, insisted I plant it there in the front garden, near to the street. …
The latest book to grace my night stand is Once Upon A Lifetime. Written by Helen Janssen (my mother’s oldest sister), this book weaves the tale of my family’s early history in Wisconsin. It shares the stories of my ancestor’s trials: harsh and brutal winters, epidemics that ended the lives of many young children, the …
I relish my mother-daughter weekends. There is always a lot of laughter. And because we know each other so well, our humor is often at each other’s expense. There is warmth. There is a lot of conversation. There is affection, with tons of hugs and walking casually with our arms around each other. There is …
