Counted Among Them

Nov 14, 2011 by

Today I took to the streets downtown to gather some last minute needs before traveling tomorrow.  However, instead of hopping in my car to go to my favorite grocery store, I decided to walk to a new one just a few blocks from our home to check it out.  I left our condo pretty disheveled, which means with no make up on, and blustering with my empty, reusable grocery bags waving all around me in today’s wind.  I grabbed a few of the things I needed, but left others, deciding that those items could be found cheaper at the local Bed, Bath and Beyond. So, with a couple half-full bags, I walked a few more blocks to purchase cheaper paper towels and body lotion.  On the way home, I realized I also needed to...

read more

Potato Pie Philosophy

Nov 1, 2011 by

“What a good mom am I!” read my facebook status as I, nearly bursting from the secret of it all, covertly prepared my son’s favorite – sweet potato pie – for he and his wife to enjoy during their brief, two-day visit to Seattle. The day before, I ran to the market to get all of the ingredients I’d need to cook up happy yesterdays and blissful memories of days gone by when the smell of sugar, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, evaporated milk, eggs, and sweet potato wafted through through my kitchen, tempted Ryan’s stomach and filled his heart with oven-baked evidence of how well he was loved by his flour covered momma. Without exception, whenever I bake sweet potato pies, it’s in pairs with one designated just for Ryan in a sort of...

read more

Personal Earthquakes

Oct 26, 2011 by

Personal earthquakes. I’ve had a series of them lately. Some have been small tremors, like the smattering of persistent and color resistant gray hair, straight gray hair, peppered within the thick mass of my curly, bleached light brown ones. Others, dare I say more even, have been the leveling kind, like the doubts that have dogged my lifelong faith causing me to retreat from my faith-based job and communities; my children finding future away from our home; and – speaking of home – leaving ours of 24 years in Colorado to go and find a new one in the sometimes sunshine all of the time fickle skies of Seattle, Washington. Yeah. I’m talking major, 9.5 on the Richter Scale personal earthquakes that have left me sifting through the rubble of my life and trying...

read more

This Teaching Moment Is Presented By . . ....

Oct 10, 2011 by

“Tough week for me. 3 presentations = no sleep, much stress. I hate presentations. Got through it though. Very comfortable in many other settings (negotiations, etc). But I realized something. I need to do more presentations!” Marc Walters Around three weeks ago, my husband experienced a malevolent possession of sorts. For nearly a week, instead of his typically calm, cool, and collected self, he was agitated, insecure, and preoccupied to the point of sleeplessness. Given the lack of other distractions in our home, like say . . . children, I was very much caught in the web of madness woven by this stranger who called himself my husband. Marc’s agitation became mine. His insecurity called to mine. His nights spent in worry and not sleep left me also surfing the net at ungodly hours...

read more