Author’s Note: This piece was written several days ago, but it took me almost a week to show up enough to post it. Baby steps, y’all, baby steps. ****** Earlier today I sat down to write. The conditions were optimal, just the way I like it. A candle flickered in…
“Some people have a thick skin and you don’t. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world.” — Anne Lamott A few weeks ago I wrote, what I thought, was a fun, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek post about some…
I don’t know exactly when it happened. But at some point –somewhere amidst the sleepless nights and the potty training, the playdates and the tantrums, the first steps and the last diaper, the frantic searches for blankies and the never-ending just-one-more-story bedtimes – my little boys decided to go ahead…
A couple of weeks ago, the boys and I spent some time gathering up old books for a used book drive. For the better part of an hour, we sorted and organized, deciding which books to keep and which to put in the cardboard donation box. After we had filled…
Twelve years ago, I moved to Chicago, a city of nearly 3 million people. I came to Chicago from a tiny rural town in Wisconsin with a population of only about 5,000 by way of a seven-year stay in Madison, Wisconsin, which is home to approximately a quarter million people.…
“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” Isaac Newton About five years ago, I sat in church one cold and dreary Sunday morning while our pastor, Jennifer, talked about bridges. I came into church that morning a little lost, a little frustrated, and utterly exhausted. I didn’t really…