4th Anniversary Every March I recognize the anniversary of writing this piece. Just for myself. It’s always tempting to do some editing — rewrite it and rework it, tidy up the prose, swap this story for that — but I try to leave it as is. The idea for it came almost a full year before I actually started writing it. I pushed it off for months as “too hard, too risky, too much,” and …
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I’ve been trying my hand at more and more poetry this past year. I have a very limited collection of poems in my keeping and, based on what I’m churning out, it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been hitting Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver pretty hard. I’ve tried to write a few in the spirit of Langston Hughes (one of the others I’ve got in my collection) but those ones sound pretty silly so far. Anyhow, …
A few months ago I was asked by a friend to write a one-page Lenten reflection. His idea was to find 40 different folks who would each write a reflection and then he would compile them into a complete one-a-day collection to be read during Lent. This is what I contributed. In the booklet it’s the reflection for day 2 of Lent and since today is the second day of Lent, I thought I would …
Most weekday mornings, after dropping the boys off at school, I make some coffee and sit with it by the fire. I take my time, sip it slowly, and endeavor to do only that. Just drink and breathe. And look out the window. Sometimes I let my mind wander. Sometimes I try to notice what I’m doing: filling my lungs with air – and releasing, tasting my coffee – warm and slightly sweet, hearing the …
Nance’s Book Awards Last year I read 33 books. I’m hoping to increase that to 50 this year. Jason has the same goal so we’re hoping to spur each other on. Yesterday we realized, though, that we’ll need to read roughly one book per week to reach our goal. We’re already feeling pretty daunted and we’re only on day 5 of the new year. We’ll see how this goes! 2017 had some great reads …
To read part one, click here. To read part two, click here. Part Three “Seriously, though, what happened to your boobs?” Twenty years after that day in the dressing room, my sister and I found ourselves in yet another dressing room, puzzling once again over my rebellious breasts. Prior to their postpartum disappearing act they had always been my most prominent feature. They were my “one beauty” akin to Jo’s hair in Little Woman. I …
If you’d like to read Part One first, click here. Part Two When I finally came to grips with the fact that my breasts were not going to re-grow and that I was likely stuck with these B-cup breasts for the foreseeable future, my initial feelings were that of relief. I could find shirts that fit with buttons that didn’t pop. I no longer had to wrangle myself into two sports bras for a workout. …
Part One I used to have big boobs. We’re not talking double J’s or even large enough to cause back pain. But still. They were sizable. The envy of my smaller breasted friends and noticeable enough that men and boys were remarking on them before I had reached my eleventh birthday. When I was ten, perched on the back of our brown-striped sofa with a book, my mother walked out of the laundry room with …
Well, if I had any lingering doubt that I am a Five on the Enneagram, it was put to rest this week. I listened to a couple episodes of the Typology podcast (thanks, Michelle!) featuring Fives and it was like so many locks sliding home. The episode with a panel (a whole panel of them – including a woman!) of Fives was the most insightful to me and I have been thinking about a few …
Photo credit Our Community Group this year will be working our way through What is the Bible? by Rob Bell. Check in on Wednesdays for a recap. October 17, 2017 Our blessing and self portrait last night were brought by Paul. He practices meditation regularly and shared one of the apps he uses called Prana Breath. To open the evening, we lit our group candle and spent five minutes matching our breath to the prompts/sounds …
