The Six-O. It is a milestone we’ve already celebrated for my husband and two of my sisters over the last few years. Some of my closest friends have already crossed this threshold and they are brilliant, vibrant, still living people. Sixty looks good based on those people. They are each living an ever-increasingly vibrant life — clearer, wiser, more generous,…
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So much death. It’s a heavy time. I know several people, close friends, who said goodbye to fathers last year. The existential shift is real. I have now said goodbye to three Dads in my life. Actually, two were ‘goodbyes’ the other was more of a “wait, what?“ Or … maybe the moment of a father dying is always a…
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Under normal circumstances, moving isn’t easy. Moving upsets our comfort zones. It shakes up our orientation
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My beautiful mother could cast a narrative of her life that’s very different than the story she actually lives out daily, and has lived for the last 50 years. She could wear righteous anger over betrayal and loss. She could carry that badge and wave it around, ever so subtly, to keep her place as a person who deserves more…
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In a social media environment where the curated messaging of our Instagram feed has the power to make us feel many things – motivated, inspired, discouraged, inferior – I like to remind my family of the Unique Rainbow Theory. Or URT. (It’s my theory; still working on the name.) The URT is the principle that when we see a rainbow…
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We’ve enjoyed receiving the picture cards from our friends around the country, counting blessings and finding the joy of this ______ year. This impossible, unprecedented, ridiculous, frustrating, agonizing, surprising, miraculous year. For the first time in decades, I haven’t had the mental ability to create one of our epic family collage storytelling cards for 2020. Literally it turned into a…
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Somehow my life has always been this way. My world is filled with a lot of people – smart, wise people – who land on all different points on all the spectrums of ideological thought and life-journey decisions. I know many loving, dedicated people who have considered deeply the ways to prioritize the factors of their own life and make…
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I’ve always placed a high value on smiling; a smile is good for the universe. Our own smile can cure so many ills, and even can predict our lifespan. (what??) And without a doubt, it makes the day brighter for everyone (admit it). This week I’m traveling through airports for the first time in many months and one of my…
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I am terrible at secrets. If there’s a surprise planned, my kids have generally learned that I should only be told what is safe to leak, which I would offer is strategically helpful for the sophisticated surprise planner. I’m an open book, unless it’s a matter of privacy or there’s an NDA somewhere. In broad terms, I’ve become a freak…
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It’s pretty natural for me to rationalize bad behavior; I perfected this craft in my 20’s. A lost temper, a little white lie, an extra drink, a third cookie, a nap. Wait, I never napped in my 20’s, but there may be a few more I’ve erased from memory. In my first marriage, I rationalized my angst over my flawed…
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by Suzy Sammons “Narrative is our culture’s currency; he who tells the best story wins.” — Bobette Buster As Christians we follow the greatest storyteller of all time. Jesus of Nazareth taught a small band of disciples, and changed the world with stories that delivered radical messages of love and transformation. As His modern followers we have worked hard to do…
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Physiologically speaking, our bodies are miracles of growth and healing. When we get a cut on our finger, the white blood cells in our body rush to the site to increase cell production and heal the injury. This is a simple metaphor for community, right? The advanced science of our physical make-up is often relatable to the needs we have…
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It is my nemesis, this unwritten book. The wild story that might not sound polished and eloquent. It may upset Catholics and Evangelicals alike. My siblings might think I’m not being fair to my father, or too dramatic and I understand their point of view. My story may upset people who don’t realize the “before” me, and think I’m betraying…
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When you go from non-stop, always-on, packing-unpacking, carpooling and juggling, to this, it feels like a jolt. The slamming stop of a rollercoaster, and we’re all on it in our own little cars, looking around making sure everyone’s ok. Often when we take a vacation, it always takes a few days to really get unplugged and focused on the “just…
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Christmas Day 2019 One Husband, one Ex-Husband, Three Millennials with a Z-er, and a Whole Bunch of Grace. “But it’s really pretty great,” I say. Many wide-eyed, sometimes horrified people react in wonder and shock as I share the story of our Christmas Day. It’s not unusual any more for my husband and my ex-husband to be sharing a [non-alcoholic] toast…
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When I found out I was pregnant at 41, there was an element of physical fear, for sure. After all, my girlie-parts were supposed to be winding down, weren’t they? And my husband was completely sterile from cancer treatment 10 years prior. (About which my more savvy girlfriends chided, “uh, you fell for that?”) This wasn’t supposed to be possible…
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What do you do with your critical mind? It might be a mental spectrum particular to a certain set of conditions; either innate or learned. Perhaps legalism, alcoholism, duplicity, perfectionism, (etc.) all play a role in creating this pattern in our brains. Let’s take a fun little jaunt across a potential* spectrum of our human critical mind. Trust me, I’m…
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Ten years ago I left a long career in the major ad agency business. I said good bye to the remarkably brilliant people at TBWA\Chiat\Day after a dozen years with that agency and embarked on a new journey. My loving team sent me off with freshly monogramed, super-luxe blank journals with uncracked bindings (you know that sound). I would go…
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Throughout their lives, as our kids have faced new challenges – moving to new cities with new schools and youth groups and sports teams – as well as launched into new lives at college and beyond, we’ve repeatedly shared this story with them to paint a simple picture of life. You could say it’s one of our family’s folk tales.…
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Last Thursday evening, my husband and two youngest kids and I met up with 7 other people we didn’t know, climbed into a van with our duffel bags and our good intentions and drove to the border town of Mexicali Mexico to build something. I’d been busy enough in the weeks leading up to our departure that I quietly panicked…
