My mind runs ahead of me all day everyday. As I’m washing dishes or folding laundry, eating my breakfast or driving, if I’m not engaged in conversation (and sometimes even when I am) I am thinking ahead. I’m making plans with contingencies for every possibility I can imagine. When everything is going according to plan, …
A Mother’s Heart
My Gift - Artwork by Elisabeth Crocker with a little help from her mom Our kids made our hearts skip a beat when they shared their news that they’re expecting and we’d be grandparents, but their “don’t tell anyone yet because we want to announce it” left us anxious to celebrate and worried that we’d …
Keeping Appointments
In the early weeks after my cancer diagnosis, I endured multiple doctors’ appointments each week. Once my radiation began last November, I visited the cancer center daily, five days a week, excepting weekends and holidays for twenty-eight days. Chemotherapy meant seeing the doctor and having labs drawn on Monday, a four hour session in the …
Your Destination Is Just Ahead
Recalculating. Return to the route. Make a legal u-turn. Promptings by the gps can cause blood pressure spikes, especially in heavy traffic or in unfamiliar territory. I really dislike being so dependent on technology for direction. I’ve pulled onto the highway to the right or left only to have the map spin like a compass …
Ice Cream For Breakfast
Thanksgiving means huge meals with all the family favorites, which unfortunately don’t come with labels. Potluck, for me this year, is like playing Russian Roulette with my insides! Since my cancer surgeries this past summer, my digestive system has been a little quirky. Suffice it to say, I’ve become aware of things that are necessary …
He Loves Me
I watched as my younger son, Jacob, twisted an apple stem to the sing-song cadence of the alphabet. As he approached the letter of his wife’s first name, he gave an extra yank and proclaimed triumphantly, “V for Valentina!” If there’d been a clover or a daisy, he would have split the last petal to …
Faith With Feet
“Imagine a world where our beliefs weren’t just something that happened in our heads and hearts- but became something powerful we did with our hands and feet.” ~Jennifer Dukes Lee We all yearn for a life of significance. Truth be told, we want to matter. We long to leave our mark on the world, but …
Grand Entrance
Traffic circles have only recently started popping up near my home. The one that’s been here longer than me I’ve mostly managed to avoid. I was schooled in traffic loop protocol in Houston, Texas several years ago. Between the Children’s Hospital and almost anywhere else, five roads merged on a loop with 3 lanes. It …
Selling Out
It’s a seller’s market out there! When my daughter and her husband learned that his medical training would continue in North Carolina this spring, they immediately began looking for housing. A new listing would appear and before they could contact their agent, the property was under contract. With barely enough time to close before their …
A Life Changed
One year ago, I didn’t know I would be a grandmother and I had no idea I had cancer. The day before I met my daughter-in-law’s family for the first time, I had my initial screening colonoscopy recommended at age fifty. I wish I’d had one sooner. I was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer …
A Fitting Reply 