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The Ground Beneath Us – trailer launch
Hey readers! Thanks for your continued support. I’m very excited to release the trailer for my next novel – “The Ground Beneath Us”. Check it out below. Head over to my Facebook Page to stay up to date on all the latest.
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The Good Towels
Life has felt all churned up lately and I haven’t blogged all summer and every time I think about sitting down to work on something new my mind circles a seemingly random, humble subject: my bathroom towels. The good towels. As in don’t use those towels to wipe the floor or dry off the dog and don’t take them camping. Except they’re not so good anymore, these towels. They’re tattered, tired, fuzz-less towels that—get this—will be twenty years old come next Wednesday. They were a wedding gift back in the day when every wedding showcased maroon, forest green, and/or navy. (Can I get an amen from the mid-nineties brides?) Anyway,…
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Often It Comes Down to This
I like my smart phone. I like Facebook. I like texts and emails. I’m warming up to Pinterest and Twitter. (Slowly) I like these things… and yet often they seem like clambering puppies. Before kids, I worked with infants in a daycare one summer and I don’t know why but when 4 o’clock in the afternoon rolled around all of the babies wanted my attention at the same time: Me me! Pick up me! Spend time with me! Sometimes, this is how social media comes across: Frantic. Desperate. Demanding. Coffee in hand, I often give in to them because they’re just so loud, causing certain thoughts in my head to…
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The Biting Truth About Transitions
When I was in labor, fourteen years ago, I almost bit my husband’s neck. We were trying that “dancing” technique that sounds so sweet in Lamaze class—my arms around his shoulders, his arms around my giant waist, rocking back and forth. But I involuntarily added another move: my teeth were bared and slowly sinking into his neck. He still thanks me for not actually biting down, but I was this close. I was in transition—that in between time when you go from pain to HELLO PAIN! Transition. Such a nice word to describe agony. Life is full of transitions—moving, changing jobs, going from unmarried to married, married to single, kids…
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The Design of Things
Remember “double rainbow man”? The guy who glimpsed a double rainbow, captured it on film, and shared it with the world on youtube? His video went viral due to his unbridled euphoria. He even wept at one point. He’s garnered his share of ridicule and prompted a lot of people to say “What is wrong with him?” I confess. I rolled my eyes the first time I watched his barrage of emotion. And then he got me thinking. What if? What if the world is standing on its head? Why is screaming and jumping over a football game or a U2 concert accepted yet this guy’s genuine reaction to nature…
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Screen Door
Remember when a screen was just a screen? A cluster of grey mesh squares that let the breeze in and kept the bugs out? Did your house have a screen door you’d let slam? Did fresh air sweep in through the screens of your windows while you slept? Bees brushed up against it in daytime and crickets sang through it at night and the wind flowed in and out, as did friends. Remember that screen? That uncomplicated, no-need-to-monitor screen? Maybe I’m merely pining for summer, but I miss (sort of) when that defined screen. We have many screens in our house, many different sizes and brands. I’m staring at one…
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The 12 blogs of Christmas #12: Packing up Jesus
It’s that time of year again. Time to put Jesus in a box. Pluck him off the shelf and swaddle him in tissue paper and stash him in the basement until next year. Christmas is over, right? And this final blog post is kinda late, right? Reason #1: I had the stomach flu. Reason #2: I meant it to be “late”. If the 25th marks the day we celebrate Jesus’ birth, he’s a whopping 4 days old and now it’s kind of like… party’s over. Thanks for coming. Now everyone go home. Here’s the thing: babies grow. And grow and keep growing and walk and talk and go on to…
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The 12 blogs of Christmas #11: Welcome
We step into a house with a newborn like we’re stepping into a bubble, in breathless wonder. Babies are so easy to welcome. So disarming, so nonthreatening. So unifying, because we all started out like that—as a trembling, mewling newborn. Utterly, almost frighteningly, dependent.All of us: President Obama. The artist/athlete/superstar you like. That guy from Duck Dynasty. The person who drives you nuts. At the start we’re the same, same, same. Human. Only a human gets another human. My dog doesn’t totally get me. My Christmas tree doesn’t get me, neither do the glorious stars or a sunset or the birds flying overhead. Only humanity can empathize with humanity. And…
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The 12 Blogs of Christmas #10: Old Eyes
She is old. She is weathered. Life has not been easy. She spends her days and nights in the temple. She understands prayer, she’s familiar with fasting, and she is waiting for something big. She is Anna. Anna the prophetess. One of the most (to me) obscure, intriguing characters in the account of Christ’s birth. Little baby boys were carried in and out of the temple all the time, to undergo a ceremony according to the law of Moses. Anna must have had seen hundreds of babies pass through the temple doors. But when her eyes fall on this baby she immediately knows. This is it. HE is it. He’s…
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The 12 Blogs of Christmas #9: Disillusionment
Disappointment has a sister and her name is disillusionment. Mary certainly doesn’t come across as disappointed with the unexpected direction her life abruptly took (“My soul glorifies the Lord!”) but as a girl turned mother turned wife, I wonder if she was a wee bit disillusioned. Maybe there’s a better word for my life isn’t going how I thought it would. Interrupted? Pushed off course? God loved Mary, clearly. Chose her to play one of the most significant roles in His-Story. And Mary’s response? Let it be done to me as you have said. Faith and obedience join hands. So for all of her obedience and faith shouldn’t God… I…
