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Jan 27

Restraint

On Janus, there is no reason to speak. Tom can go for months and not hear his own voice. He knows some keepers who make a point of singing, just like turning over an engine to make sure it still works. But Tom finds freedom in the silence. He listens to the wind. He observes the tiny details of life on the island. – M.L. Stedman, ‘The Light Between Oceans.’


I know. I’m behind on blogging.

I could give a variety of  excuses:

1. Our winter homeschool activity schedule.  The girls love gymnastics, but it may have been the thing that tipped me from happy homeschooling mama to off-kilter, crazy lady. Considering the encouragement I receive from steady, faithful, fellow homeschooling mamas while we watch our children learn to tumble, though, I’ll be sad to see these ten weeks be over.

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Dec 22

5 Comments

Grace

I am conflicted.

Last week, mainstream media exploded with the tragic story of twenty-six people who lost their lives to a – literal – madman.

Social media imploded with a smorgasbord of response –

Shame on him. Shame on his mother. Shame on all those who said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Shame on guns.

Shame on all you who carry guns.

Shame on gun control.

Shame on the President.

Shame on all of you who voted for the President.

Shame on all of you who didn’t.

Shame on all of you who don’t feel shocked.

Shame on all of you who don’t feel anything.

Shame on all of you who feel anything different than I do.

That’s a lot of shame.

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Nov 24

2 Comments

Great

There’s a light in the darkness, though the night is black as my skin; there’s a light burning bright, showing me the way, but I know where I’ve been – Hairspray

Nine days ago, I sat in a crowded oncology office,

Waiting.

The patient in front of me took longer than usual. He was young, tired, gray.

I knew that look.

Sick.

Do I look sick? I said to David.

I messaged a friend who was also waiting. Waiting for specialist results. Waiting for answers. Waiting to know if there was a big reason why all these little things wouldn’t seem to go away.

They’d not heard anything yet.

An hour later, the doctor called for me. Here we go, I thought.

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Nov 12

3 Comments

Brave

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. – Helen Keller

Some days, I just don’t know what I’d do without my friends.

Well, maybe I do. Maybe I don’t want to think about it. Maybe I don’t want you guys to know that. Maybe there’s a tiny part of us that is unfit for any other human to know, see, or understand,

even those we trust the most.

I firmly believe in the power of community.

Nothing hard is conquered in isolation. Nothing painful is endured so well as within a safe community.

But even the safest community can be – at times – dangerous.

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Nov 7

6 Comments

The Rightness of Being Wrong

Last weekend a friend told me about some people she knew who took two years off their North American dream and worked in Saudi Arabia.

They came home and retired on the savings.

Huh.

I love British Columbia. I love Vancouver. I even love (most of) Vancouver’s suburbs. But it is insanely expensive to live here. The ability to do what these people did – to live with little to no financial stress – is wildly appealing.

Except I wouldn’t do so well in Saudi Arabia.

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Sep 29

1 Comment

The Genius of a Perfect Circle

Last summer, I blogged so much I barely had time for other writing projects.

Blogging can be addictive. The lure of instant feedback was so powerful, the challenge of 100, 000 word projects so overwhelming, that last year I over-blogged and under-wrote.

Yup, let’s all say it together: New-bie!

This year I found Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering. Storytellers, you should read this. It’s accessible, wise, and instantly applicable.

It’s the reason that, this fall, I have the opposite problem.

I’m too busy writing to blog.

I’m too busy writing to even read.

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Sep 13

The Haves and the Have-Nots

The love of money is the root of all evil; the lack of money is the root of all evil. – Robert Kiyosaki

If a person gets his attitude towards money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life. – Billy Graham

The last six weeks have been a blur of sun and travel; biking, flying, and driving; food, games, movies, and books.

Yes, you know me. There was a lot of books.

I left with four Kindle reads and two hardcovers, but when I arrived at our home-away-from-home, I also wandered to their lobby’s lending library. Always curious to see what others choose to buy then share with others, my eyes landed on a black-lettered green paperback: Moneyball.

From the first pages, Michael Lewis swept me back to adolescence, where September meant less about going back to school and more about the World Series. With each chapter, I returned to the smell of my Grannie’s kitchen and taste of my mom’s apple pie.  I went back to the day I paced the front bedroom of my grandparents’ cozy old house, unable to watch as Dave Winfield tried to defy the curse of a 2-2-2 count.

He did.

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Aug 8

14 Comments

Superwoman and the Impossible Dream

I sit in the middle of a half-painted room.

Green painter’s tape encases the semi-white trim of my stairwell. A gallon of  Swiss Coffee paint sits opened two feet from me, a two-inch paint brush on the newspaper-covered floor next to me.

I am tired.

Two years ago, David and I remodeled our kitchen. We took out a wall, replaced the cabinets, and painted it – white.

White has a dramatic effect on a small house. The walls look cleaner, less enclosing, somehow.  And when I saw the kitchen results, when I realized how much white opened up the room I spend the most time in, I thought, maybe I should keep going with this color.

So I did. I stretched the Sandstone Cove into the hallway and down the stairs.

But I got tired.

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Aug 8

2 Comments

Great Escapes

Every sunny day of the last four weeks, I stop the housework at 11 am, grab my sunscreen and sunglasses, and head for our back deck. My girls play next to me as I pull up my folding chair and open a book.

For five minutes or sixty, this is how I celebrate summer: escape.

I admit, I’m hard on my beach reads. They have to be good. Really good. Awkward language, cardboard characters, and anytime I’m told rather than shown loses my attention and sends me running for the next good better read.

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Jul 23

3 Comments

I’m Fine, Because I’m Not

‘I’m fine’: 1) the more polite way to say, ‘no, get lost.’  2)The general response to any question asking how you are doing or feeling. – Urban Dictionary

The ability to lie is a liability. – Unknown

I have a horrible memory of eighth grade – I forget which class it was. We played a game that required making up a lie on the spot that the rest of the class would believe.  (I know, seriously, what were they teaching us?!).

At my turn I started to sweat and looked at the ceiling.  I felt myself flush as I sputtered through the worst improv ever.

A kid in the back row laughed his head off.

You’re not a good liar, are you?

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