Get Used to Disappointment

I recently applied for a job I was sure was designed just for me. The skills required could not have been more perfect, the time of our financial need could not be greater and the conditions of the job so flexible and ideal for my family’s situation that I suspected this was surely a “God Thing”. Yesterday I got a call that I didn’t get the job.

Happy 233rd Birthday, George

I’m not big into bandwagons. If there’s a fad I’m usually a’gin it. A favorite color? I won’t wear it. A political messiah? I doubt it. An obvious answer? I won’t give it. With an alter-ego so often desiring to please, I am, in effect, my own worst nightmare.

And so it is no surprise that when it comes to our Founding Fathers, I have always struggled to sing the praises of the most popular of them all: Thomas Jefferson.

A Spring in My Step

Last week on my daily walk with Miley I saw my first green bud of spring and let out an audible squeal of joy. I couldn’t help it. Not even the restrained emotions of my anglo-german DNA could keep me quiet. It’s the same feeling I get when I see my first snowflake of winter--only happier!

Miley and Me

I knew I was a real "mom" the day instinct drove me to do the unthinkable. In an airborne lunge worthy of Barry Bonds, I flew across a crowded party room toward my urping first-born infant son, managing to catch his "lunch" in my hands to save my friend Wendy's carpet from a fate worse than death. And just like that, I knew I had turned a new corner. I was a real mom.

Voting for Change

Hope and Change are mantras that lift our hearts. We saw our nation rise to its collective feet and for the first time in my voting lifetime, stand in lines for hours in polling stations all for the purpose of bringing some light into a long dark night.

"Just" Forgiveness

There are times in my Christian life when I get so tired of failing and falling. And it's not just failing and falling once but countless times over the same stone of sin. The same habits. The same struggles. There's a reason I don't make New Year's resolutions.

Bah Humbug

Christmas is over and I am celebrating. Despite many aspects of this year's Yule Tide going well including the addition of a puppy to our family, the fact is I have been developing a growing dislike of Christmas. Bah humbug.

Winter Solstice

Heavy orbed bowl of light
Spilling out blue beams upon vast hills of snow beneath.
Dim shadows cast among
This mono-colored world of night
Where tiny sparks of crystal dust wink back
At eyes enthralled to find them.

Life Lessons

There are two kinds of people with ADD: those who make lists and those who think they don’t have to. Me? I’m a list-maker convert. And a calendar keeper. And a PDA alarm setter for all-things-mucho-importante.

Of course I didn’t start out this way. Life has a way of making us face our limits--countless missed appointments with penalty fees and botched schedules were mine. My final day of reckoning came when I sent my three children to school in their pajamas on Pajama Day-- only to find it wasn’t. It was time to admit I had a problem and get professional help.