encouragement for every season of life
If I asked you the following questions, what would be your answer? In what way do you struggle to fit in? What is one thing about you that makes it difficult for you to fit in with those around you? If you had asked me the second question in junior high, the answer would have rolled off my tongue before you…
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I glance at my phone just in time to see the lit-up news teaser, and once again I can’t believe what it relays. I tap the link and read the article, sickened to my core by hateful words and pixels. “Oh Lord, may Your Kingdom come,” I pray out loud. It is good to dwell in unity, but how heartbreaking…
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Hello dear ones! I’ve missed you more than Earl Grey tea and scones with orange marmalade. Oh yes I have. We’ve had such rainy days here in Colorado Springs, so a hot cup of Earl Grey sounds doubly good right now. We arrived home from our vacation mid-July, and I’m still reveling in the memories. Y’all, we had such a…
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This July marks seven years we’ve lived in Colorado, almost twice as long as I’ve lived anywhere as a married woman. Parts of the Centennial State certainly feel like home: a lovely church family, colorful cowboy boots, abundant sunshine and established friendships for our whole family. There are a few parts that don’t feel like home, like the lack of prolific deciduous…
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A short while ago, I met the Most Perky Panera Employee ever. Her name tag read Anna, and she sported a cute pixie cut that made her Panera apron look like something from a Paris runway. As she took my order, her words bounced throughout the store like a pep squad leader’s, cheerful and bright. Given the late evening time, I wondered…
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Well, let me just say amen and glory hallelujah because summer break. is. here. When my kids were young, I didn’t look forward to summer the same way I do now. My husband spent so much time away during those years (#militarywife), summertime meant I had longer seasons of solo parenting. During my twin sons’ Kindergarten school year, I contemplated spending the…
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Last Friday, I awoke well before the sun appeared to our corner of the earth. After making sure my daughter was up as well, I fought my bleary eyes to dress and brush my hair. I made myself a chai latte, put it in one of those handy-dandy disposable to-go cups, and finished assembling the sack lunches for my daughter and myself….
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Y’all, it snowed three times in the last 10 days. Three times! The weekend before last, it snowed so hard and the wind blew so fierce that our son got stuck in a snowdrift covering the entire road. He wasn’t the only one to do so. Thankfully, he did eventually make it home safe and sound. I don’t like spring snow,…
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Around this time of year, the intricately designed wildflowers in my Colorado town push through the stubborn, still-hard earth while weathering late spring snowstorms, hailstorms, and wildly fluctuating temperatures. And around this time of year, my thoughts turn to those youngest members of our military families. They push through hard times and weather storms of their own. Maybe this is why April is Month of…
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The $5 forsythia branches I bought at Sprouts look differently today than they did. When I bought them a month ago, the bony branches held canary-yellow flowers that sang bright and beautiful. But with time, the flowers are slowly shriveling and folding inward, giving way for new green growth. In nature, isn’t there always a death of sorts before new life? I don’t…
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Sitting in my living room, I watched the fog descend like a slow curtain after the final act of a play. Removing distant characters from my view, it reminded me to focus intently on those right in front of me. The close-up, high-up pines. The columbine pushing through the ground (too soon, probably). While I couldn’t see many of the far away objects, I could still…
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Yes, we know the calendar says it’s officially spring. But when we look around us, we still see a good deal of winter. When we look inside our heart and soul, we still feel a good deal of winter. Sometimes we long for a season to get with the program and change already. But like a bitter, frosty winter that has long overstayed its…
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