places | seasons | mental & spiritual health
I’d decided to meet a friend and her kids downtown at the Science Center even though the thought of just getting there aggravated my ever-present anxiety. In the 7.8 million person Asian metropolis where we lived at the time, our two best options for getting downtown were taxi and subway. I generally tried to steer …
There’s an old Brooke Fraser song called “Crows and Locusts” that I don’t think I ever really understood, except that it’s been swirling around in my head as I study Galatians and talk to my counselor and sit still enough to think about what’s happening in my soul. “It was the year The crows and …
Continue reading "Crows and Locusts: A Drafting Desk Blog Guest Post"
Near the end of season 2, Lorelai, the protagonist of one of my all-time-favorite shows, Gilmore Girls, is graduating from business school. She returned to community college as an adult, after leaving high school when she got pregnant with her now sixteen-year-old daughter, Rory. To set the scene just a bit more, a …
These five words have begun changing everything for me. Maybe for many mothers those words are not that big of a deal. But for me, they are darn-right revolutionary. They literally declare war on a set of beliefs, fears and insecurities at the very center of my soul. Last year, I noticed how hard it is …
“My body is broken, ruined.” This became the overwhelming thought of despair in my mind more than a few times in the weeks following the birth of my second daughter. After being miserable during the recovery of my first delivery, an unwanted c-section, I'd insisted on a VBAC for my second, hoping (expecting) the recovery …
Continue reading "My Body, Broken: A Kindred Mom Guest Post"
A little over a year ago, at the start of Lent, I was in Thailand. Surrounded by the beauty and glory of Creation, my soul usually feels most alive, and yet, all I could see -- all I could feel -- was death. Months earlier, my dear friend lost her child very late term. Weeks …
Yesterday was beautiful. The sky was blue-ish, the sun was shining and it was the warmest day we've had in a long time. Come to think of it, for the wild and free heart, it was a let-your-hair-down-and-just-run kind of day. And my sweet girl stays pretty tuned into her wild and free heart. All wild, …
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” After praying that God would make these words true for me as a wife, mother, friend - person - I’ve been wondering what holds me back from this. Why don’t I behave on a daily basis like this is true? I long to be generous. With …
I recently experienced a revival of sorts in my mothering. And my life - especially my life (and my mothering) overseas. Don't get me wrong: mothering is the hardest thing I've ever done (as much as it's also the most awesome thing I've ever done) and most days involve some kind of hard-earned learning -- …
Jubilee had her first day of local preschool today. Perhaps I will write later about that (it went well!), but this one is dedicated to the panic I first felt a couple weeks ago when the imminence of this day hit me like a swift punch to the gut (or heart, more like). Suffice it …
hope for the sojourn 