You've been here with me, I think? When your world is turned upside down and nothing will ever be right again. Time marches and the grace keeps flowing and you find joy breathes again from the most unlikely places. AN UPSIDE DOWN JOY Loss sweeps you off your feet. It comes, uninvited, with no apology It lifts you up, tips you upside-down and shakes you til you're … [Read more...]
Transformation!
A Meditation on Psalm 130 When the bottom falls out from under my feet I shout Help, God! I grab onto your life-preserver Word and you respond, not with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but with cellular transformation. Metamorphosis, Body/mind/spirit revolution. Every day I fall, call your name, recall your Word. You scoop me up, remind … [Read more...]
Giving and Taking Away
If you can watch your child slip into the pseudo-coma of anesthesia and not get teary-eyed, you are a better parent than me. Because my face immediately started leaking. This MRI was a long time coming. For four years, my son has complained of right leg pain. After no longer tolerating the “growing pains” explanation of our doctor, (or Jesse’s nocturnal wailings that “my leg hurts!”), … [Read more...]
the beauty of Furnace Living
Southern Living. Country Living. Coastal Living. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived my whole life in the American South, but those magazine titles call forth warm, cozy feelings of serenity in style, cooking, and home decor. As a little girl, they spoke to me of what expectations I should hold for the future. Sure, they’re romanticized (how is it that toys are rarely visible in any of the homes, … [Read more...]
Victory in the Seeming Loss of Special Needs Advocacy
It was a verbal game of chess. Winner takes all. If my son won the argument, we would return home. If I won, we would get out of the car and walk into the church. When John added a new reason why he didn’t want to go inside, I was sure he’d made a fatal mistake. He said he felt “stood up,” as he attended church each week. I countered with a correction, “’Stood up’ means showing up and no one is … [Read more...]
Even in the Hard Times
This past Saturday, as we prepared to leave for the farmer's market, my husband and I received the heart-breaking news that Audrey, a young woman with autism who lives at Safe Haven Farms with our son Joel, died unexpectedly on Friday. In her mid-20’s, Audrey was a larger than life kind of gal. She loved to dress up, loved all things Disney, and rarely used her “indoor voice.” A beautiful young … [Read more...]