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…
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Recently I had the privilege of hearing two brilliant pastors on different ends of the country speak – live – and directly to me as if they had read the whole messy complicated backstory before their talk began. First, I listened to Pastor Jim Samra’s teaching all the way from our former church in Michigan (thanks to live web streaming)…
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Sometimes when we forge new paths, we find footprints we ourselves left decades earlier. Our family is moving back to Southern California from the serene and naturally beautiful Western edge of the mitten state. (Hold up your left hand.) I spent my childhood in Michigan, so I have a deep fondness for the lakes and the uniqueness of this state’s…
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Last week on NPR I heard a fascinating interview with a psychiatrist who uses avatar therapy to quiet the negative voices in people’s minds and free them from the burdens imposed by fear, doubt, anxiety, insecurity (etc.). I’ve since read that this sort of therapy is even used to treat clinical schizophrenia. Fascinating, isn’t it? Talk about theater of the…
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Here are a few interesting dots to connect. Yesterday CNN covered loads about their own media industry. Wait, is that a circular reference? No matter. They featured a shouting panel of experts arguing whether or not we should vilify the writers of Glee who predictably leveraged the public debate of guns in schools to desperately elevate their ratings. An equal…
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Today’s news connection: The Huffington Post reports on what men say about their ex-wives. This oughta be good. Click. The statements are contradictory and, on the surface a bit whiny. But when we consider the deeper meaning, (which might be risky) the potential truth huddled beneath the whining is quite important. The reality is magnified and their statements are true,…
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It seems like a tough season. Maybe because it’s January. Many people in my life are struggling with relationships in one way or another and [spoiler alert] women often talk about relationships. No matter how we carve it up, and try to control it, all of life is about relationships. (yes, with other people) It’s like the secret to physical…
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Summertime Afternoon. Jack and his pal Eden disappear into the game room downstairs and things get dangerously quiet. But at this moment, I’m so far behind in writing and work that I irresponsibly convince myself that they’re having fun and all is good. Carpe 5 minutes. With no worries about markers on walls or pokey-sharp objects, I keep working. More…
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Now I step committed into a new course of study. My first assignment: absorb the teaching that’s housed in a book thought up by Dr. Henry Cloud a few years back. (Not to toot my own horn, but once again, it’s all connected.) GRACE ……. TRUTH …………… TIME All three essential: each one with particular and custom proportions for each…
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I know. I’m like that girl in the office who quit smoking and now thinks it’s her job to make every other smoker quit too. Right now. Annoying possibly, but you know she’s right. ~~~~~ It seems like every day I’m hearing about someone getting divorced. Or wants to. Maybe it’s my reticular activator running the show since I’ve been…
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He sent us away because it would feed our hearts. When I gently mentioned to Steve that I so wanted to go see Erik play basketball at his Multnomah University in Portland Oregon – and that Erik was genuinely begging to have me bring Jack and Riley too – my gallant husband embarked on a mission. Now you should know…
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Every Thanksgiving has story, right? And sort of a character all it’s own. Thanksgiving 2011 did not let us down. My brother Mike and his wife Christine hosted their first Thanksgiving in their wonderful home; and with the size of our family, the commitment is daunting. It starts with a tentative [timid] email to 40 people, presenting the idea of…
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I got caught shoplifting when I was 18 years old. I know, I know. REALLY late-bloomer. The security guard’s cold hand clenched my left wrist as I attempted to leave the store without paying for the pair of jeans that hid in my bag. The crime took place in a Hudson’s department store in 1980 in a middle-class suburb of…
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My precious mother-in-law sent an email this morning with a link to a famous and stirring video by AndiesIsle and as I watched it, the enormous gift of her constant love wove through my insides like a living, breathing vine. As parents, we give bits of ourselves to our children from the moment they are conceived, and every day throughout…