Many years ago, my son was milling about in a box I had set aside for Goodwill. Gasping, he pulled out a matchbox car destined to be a donation. “Mom don’t you REMEMBER this?! This was YOUR car! In all those races we had when I was little…?!” Quite honestly, I did not remember that…
Focus has not always come easily to me. I was considered a daydreamer as a child, this the consistent feedback on my report card and the frustration of many a teacher. At home, tasked with the request to clean my room, I could make it an all-day event, as I looked sentimentally at every object,…
Twelve years ago, we made the decision to remove our television from the comfort of our living room to the much less desirable, unfinished basement. The decision had the impact we hoped it would, in that it cut our screen time to almost nothing, except for the occasional family movie. Instead, we encouraged outdoor activities…
It was mid-morning when we broke through the tree line, a bit weary but exhilarated by our accomplishment. We were a troupe of unlikely mountaineers raging in age from 7 to 43, and we were on a quest to honor the man who inspired it all. In fact, shortly before he died, my dad had…
It seems odd, doesn’t it? To even consider that there may be a single gift to be found in grief? It’s almost counterintuitive to think there would be an iota of redemption found in a process that is, by its very nature, heart-wrenching and emotionally depleting. Yet, the experience of loss does not have to…