Feelings fragile like delicate ornaments hung high out of reach by thin threads unseen untouchable precarious until with one small bump they plummet and shatter into ashes that lay and wait for Love to sweep them up. Tomorrow we will bury my mother’s ashes. This act will bring some physical closure to a long journey. […]
Pearl Girls and God Bumps
The Swedish apple that’s hung on our tree every year for over 40 years. Except probably this year. I sign into Twitter, and this is the first tweet I see by @DenaDyer: Pearl One: A Christmas of Kindness http://bit.ly/t2Ll0n Did she spell it right? Pearl? Not purl? I click over to find out. It’s a God […]
Because There’s No Way of Knowing
Sissy and I, we talk about it. Again. All she did was reach to put a dish back on the nightstand. And BOOM! She hit the floor. And the ambulance came. And she never saw her house again. We talk about the lasts. The last time she walked in that door. The last time […]
I’m Feelin’ It
I want to write, I say. But I’m not feelin’ it. Make a list of the objects that are around you, she says. Just play with the list. I look around. It’s a long list. A messy list. Stacks of photo albums in blue and brown and red and pink. A half-eaten peanut butter cup […]
Unwrapping the Gift(s)
May 9, 2012 Linking this post with Ann and the 1000 Moms Project to help in the funding of a Compassion International Maternity/Child Survival program in Haiti for a whole year. My mom passed away on November 27, 2011. Thank you, Mom, for the simple gifts, for laughter, and for teaching me to […]
Saturday Snaps: Remembering
I messed up. I meant to take more photos. Especially of people. Especially of relatives and friends who came from far and not often seen. But I got sidetracked, and this is all I’ve got. Sigh. They call it a Garden of Serenity arrangement. We tweaked it with the angel. Baby Mom. Dad caught viewing […]
Five Minute Friday: So Tired
Lisa Jo asks us to write for five minutes today on tired. I think I know a little about that. I can tackle five minutes. Just five minutes though. Because I’m so . . . tired. GO The tables were beautiful, draped in white linen and scattered with Hobby Lobby pirate gold coins. Mom would […]
The End of the Journey
We are at the bedside. It was the celestial weather report, wasn’t it, Mom? Here comes the snow, and off you go. We make the calls, send the texts, post the posts. When we return, they’ve bathed and dressed her in her favorite top, the one with the sparkle neckline. She wears her glasses, the […]
Gifted in Grief
I realized it just this morning. She was my age. She was also a nurse. Instrumental, I understand, in birthing this place. She was admitted the same day we were, to the room next door to ours. She’d done battle for 18 years. A bone marrow donor stood ready, but she could not bounce back […]
Groaning for Japan
Sun bursts through banks of rolling pink and laughs all gold. Another dawn explodes with hope. A day like any other, with plans and expectations. I eat my oatmeal milked and sweet with slice of amber buttered. Steaming tea in hand, I sit. A crow catches draft and sails above corn stubble in bowl of […]
