Like a vice-grip pressing in on my temples, head blasting, brain foggy, body heavy, our two-year-old’s voice rises increasingly. I turn over to look at the clock, 5:00 a.m. Awake. An hour earlier than our usual. The heat starts burning. I feel my head, “temperature, for sure”. But stumble out of bed, anyway. For what can […]
How to De-thaw Your Life and Have Victory in the Storms
“Are you going to warm up the car?” My eight-year-old calls while scrambling to put on shoes, eat breakfast, slide on her scarf before running out the door. “I am doing that now”, I respond with toddler in hand, dangling keys, grabbing my cell phone before running to find a car frozen like Hans Solo, frozen […]
When We Miss The Pass, But Gain Perspective
“I worship you for the magnificent things you do!” I read on Russell Wilson’s Twitter hours before the big game. And something in me sinks…I am not sure why. And then there is the big play, a pass when our team is one yard away from a touchdown. And defying what most might think is a […]
When It’s Time To Stop Playing James Bond, and Trust Him
The music quickens, rising faster, higher, until it reaches a climatic crescendo. The strategic one thinks quickly, walls crushing in around him. He grabs for an instrument, cuts open an entry, and escapes…just in the nick of time. And like in all great James Bond movies, the hero out-fools, out-wits, escapes holding his breath at the […]
What’s Your Story?
She slid out from a truck of wild men, in the middle of the night, and was dropped like a tied hog in front of the Christian orphanage. Twelve, maybe. I met her six months later. And like me at the time, she was mute. Wouldn’t speak of the travesties, the trials, the abuse of her […]
A Letter To My Foster Child Stuck In “The System” on Her Birthday
I made you birthday pancakes today. They weren’t round. They weren’t perfect. You probably won’t even remember them. But I made them because I love you. You didn’t mind their raggedy shape, the fact that they were a little burnt on the backs, though I turned them down when I gave them to you. You ate […]