Spin Cycle

The smell of Gain and dryer sheets is so thick I can feel it in my pores. A fan spins in rhythm with the massive dryers. l think of all the places I’ve watched my clothes spin. There was the laundry room in my dormitory building where I alternated between studying textbooks and the pages [...]

Hold Your Baby

One day, you’ll be able to eat in peace. You’ll sit down and no one will dig their chubby fingers into your eggs or spill your coffee. One day, you’ll take an unhurried shower. You’ll dry your hair and paint your lips. One day, you’ll clean your house and it will stay spotless for at [...]

Allez Les Bleus

It was the summer of 1998. I was in Paris. Eleven years old and completely overwhelmed by voices loudly singing anthems and popular futbol chants. Faces painted in primary colors. Down the street they went arm-in-arm. Through the night I would hear a cacophony of riotous celebration and foreign insults hurled through the air in [...]

A Nearly Invisible Battle

Years ago, in the midst of a dark chapter, when I was stuck in bed and stuck in life... stuck in the decisions I had made... stuck in the pain I was feeling... I watched hours and hours of “No Reservations”. Episode after episode...I would even leave it playing through the night so the room [...]

Like Coming Home

My grandparents house always had a distinctive, sort of clean laundry smell. Today that sweet fragrance punched me right in the face. I cried. Within seconds of scent recognition, without even a conscious thought; I just lost it. Tears were burning my eyes and it felt like saying goodbye all over again. I put on [...]

No Small Parts

Sometimes the “traditional roles” of our marriage are misunderstood. Not by us, mind you. Misunderstood by others. Well-meaning people have said things like, “How long will you be home with your kids? Do you think you’re going to get a job?” I quickly remind them that I have a job. It involves 12-14 hour days, [...]

The seed provided.

Something sprouted up in my tiny garden that I didn’t recognize. It didn’t look like any of the plants growing around it. I couldn’t identify it by it's immature leaves. I hadn’t planted in that particular spot so I was confused. It grew a little more and seemed like it was starting to vine. Then [...]

Enough Sunshine For Us All

“The world has enough women who live a masked insecurity. It needs more women who live a brave vulnerability.”- Voskamp Vulnerability is hard. It’s literally defined as the state of being open to attack. I feel it whenever I lay my life and heart open to other’s eyes- even in these little squares. You know [...]

Only Connect

“Only connect.”- E.M. Forster. I heard Shauna Niequist speaking about that quote recently. She pointed out that it was helpful to her as she had a tendency to want to hide or be private. Especially when she is hurting or afraid. And I can relate to that. But she also spoke of the many other [...]

Good Friday

A day of death that we call good. Good because it is by the grace shown on this day that we have life. Good because He could have left us to wither in our inequities. But the love was too great for that. A sacrifice to end all sacrifices. No more lamb's blood. Because His [...]