Forget Your Perfect Offering
Photo by D Sharon Pruitt, on Flickr “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen Time was, I had control over the things my kids did and saw each day. But now that they are living and moving in a space outside my living room, I must watch as things that are beyond my control slowly shape and mold the person they are inside. Last year, my oldest daughter had a 5th grade teacher who changed a little piece of who she was. This teacher was a normal-enough educator, a person skilled in her trade but one who trusted too much in the power of public humiliation. If one of her 10-year-old charges wrote something wrong in their heading or didn’t precisely follow her instructions, she...
Read MoreMy wish for you today
0216 by Cia de Foto, on Flickr “Oh, I love I love I love! I cried inside myself. So many people, so many things! Music and stars and snow and weather! Oh, if one could always feel this warm love, this excitement, this glory of the infinite possibilities of life!” — Madeleine L’Engle from Camilla Do you ever feel like this? Do you ever have so much energy and enthusiasm about the possibilities of life that you feel as though you just can’t hold it all in? Sometimes I think my kids must feel that way when they come in from outside and they are laughing and tripping and spinning around in circles and won’t sit down. Their giggles just rip out of them, sometimes rapid-fire in staccato bursts, or tumbling in fluid and hearty and goofy...
Read MoreScratchy whiskers and well-worn boots
These are my husband’s shoes. We’re thinking that, in the next few months or so, he might need a new pair. When he first bought these shoes, he said he had found perfection for his foot. He was going to go and buy 50 pairs of these and when they had all worn out, that was it. He would know that he was done on this earth. I convinced him, after some time, that this might not be the most effective way to invest our money right now. So this is his only pair and he’s been wearing these things for more than 2 years. We walked in recently to the place where he bought them in the first place, and they snapped some photos to send to Patagonia, seeing as how the company values sustainability, plus the sole has held up, which is pretty impressive. We all...
Read MoreZero G
Photo courtesy of Amanda M Hatfield My daughter wanted to go to Zero G and read with me yesterday afternoon. We have this bed that goes up and down like a Craftsmatic Adjustable. It’s the most wonderful and comfortable thing ever in the world. There’s an actual setting called “Zero G” where both the head and the legs go up at the most deliciously comfortable angle. Zero G is supposed to align your neck and spine and feet and toes and brain – and relieve pretty much all pressure on your body. We snuggle together in Zero G, she with the 3rd Harry Potter and I with my Kindle and I am reading different samples of books I might want to download next and I say to her that I’ve just read a sample of a book that would be perfect to read next – and...
Read MoreJoey the Jedi
High-key Jedi Master. Photo courtesy of Pasukaru76 “I love playing with Joey,” my 7-year-old says. “He lets me be whoever I want to be.” I’m a sucker for syrupy insights, especially when they come out of my kid. I jump all over any hint of a life lesson, rushing in to drive it home. “Isn’t it nice to have a friend you can really be yourself with?” I goosh. “Someone who lets you be whomever you want to be?” “Yes.” My son replies. “He lets me be Obi Wan whenever I want. I don’t have to play Darth Vader all the time.” Oh. Well, that IS...
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