"Why is this happening to me?" It's a question that has haunted me for the past few weeks after being asked by one of my patients living with cancer. And if I can be honest, I get asked questions that are difficult to answer all the time. If it's not at work behind a curtain, it's in the prison where I spend time visiting inmates - mothers, daughters, sisters, none of them perfect obviously, but all of them asking many of the same questions. In fact, if you've lived on planet earth more than a week, they often ask questions that every one of us have likely asked at some point in our lives. Why did God allow sin to enter the world? Why couldn't He have created us to love Him without questioning anything? Why sin? Why did He create me, and why would He allow me to reject ... View Post
Finding Treasures in the Ladies Room
In 2012, I took my first trip to volunteer at the Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia when my younger son was attending as a college student. The details of where we stayed, when we ate, how we managed to connect at the end of the day, and find each other during those very long four days escape me 13 years later. To be honest, the days were so long that I don't even remember any of the details surrounding where we stayed or how we got to and from the airport. What I do remember is that I was placed on what was referred to as the "Touch Team," meaning I would have some sort of involvement in the everyday activities of the students. Initially I was placed in a group of about 50 people who would eventually be broken down into smaller groups, and then smaller, ones. And I'm not sure ... View Post
“Hand-Me-Down” Holiday Traditions
Right in the middle of me talking with my patient a few weeks ago, her phone rang. "I have to take this," she said, "it's my daughter!" I listened as she gave detailed instructions on how to re-create the stuffing for the turkey she grew up loving so much. My patient smiled at me as I waited. It was a sweet moment for me. She didn't seem bothered at all, either, when her daughter called several more times during her chemotherapy treatment to ask several other questions about her favorite recipes she'd grown up enjoying. Apparently, this daughter was taking over hosting the Thanksgiving holiday this year since her mom was going through cancer treatment and really didn't feel quite up to preparing a meal for the entire family. My patient asked if I was hosting, and what the plans ... View Post
Closing Out 2024
As 2024 comes to a close, and Christmas cards flood the mailbox, I find myself looking forward to new beginnings, just like everyone else. For several years when Rory & Ian were young, I would type up a New Year letter, print it on festive paper, stuff it into envelopes and spend a small fortune sending them out to family and friends. I wish I'd have kept copies for myself to look back it, but it never crossed my mind. Oh well, live and learn, right? One year, someone wrote me and said that she no longer wished to receive my letters because they were boastful and phony and she was tired of hearing about my perfect life. My life was far from perfect, but that was the last year I sent out a holiday letter. Ever. Year after year since then, I've enjoyed getting updates stuffed ... View Post
Reach Up High, Lean Way In, & Find Yourself A Mentor
Years ago, someone gave me a book called "Future Grace," by John Piper. For those of you who've read it, you know - it's no small book. I tried to get through it, but it was way too much for me. So I put it up high on my shelf behind all of the other books waiting to be read. It was probably about a year later when volunteering at the Passion Conference in Atlanta when John Piper was going to be one of the key note speakers, and I thought... Oh, this will be when all the college students take a break, run back to their rooms, or grab lunch. They won't want to hear John Piper. Boy, was I ever wrong. That's not at all what happened. In fact, they couldn't get into the building fast enough. They scrambled to get as up close as they could. They waited, literally on the edge ... View Post
Looking Forward – 2025
I love the anticipation of holidays - the fall colors and smells, and yes, I am a pumpkin-everything gal. In fact, even as we speak my fall pumpkin candle is burning away in the dining room. Yum. Raking leaves and earning a couple of bucks, the Christmas parties at school, sleeping in, Christmas caroling, family parties at Aunt Norma's on Christmas Eve, sneaking upstairs during the basement parties just to sit quietly in her cozy little living room on the couch admiring her always, very wide Christmas tree, the ornaments that were so different than ours at home, and heading to church at midnight before driving home. There was something really mysteriously sweet about the stillness of night on our way home, and all of us cousins would discuss whether or not it was true that at ... View Post
End Domestic Violence
A friend of mine reminded me today that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Since I have 7 girlfriends who have experienced this first-hand, one whose husband committed suicide when he realized he was about to get arrested.... and the other 6 who are still trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, dealing with some pretty serious PTSD... Likely for the rest of their lives... I thought it was only fitting that I mention October being DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS Month. For their sake. And maybe even for your sake. Also... All of them were too afraid to say anything, and three of them - when they did, were never taken seriously... Even by other women. They didn't just FEEL alone. They truly WERE alone. If you are living in a domestic abuse ... View Post
How To Be An Influencer
Watching my grandchildren growing up at breakneck speed before my very eyes is mind boggling. As their personalities develop more and more, it's fun to see their likes and dislikes. Maci who isn't 3 yet wants to put a tutu on over every outfit, because there's not much she wants more than to be a ballerina. Yesterday I watched her run around a basement full of 8-year-old girls for Lyla's birthday party, so excited to be with the big girls, to look like them, and to do the things they do. To my almost 3-year-old Maci, these little 2nd graders are her influencers! Now, don't laugh, but I just heard that term "social media influencer" a couple of years ago when a friend pointed out that someone we knew was one... an "influencer," and said it as though this individual were a ... View Post