We know, as parents, from the moment we give birth to a child, that this precious being is only entrusted to us for a time. I knew one day that my child would leave. I knew that in my head…but didn’t ever think about facing the reality with my heart. We raise our children with …
A letter to Car: me
Dear Carolyn, A letter to Carolyn, from Carolyn. That can sorta catch people off guard, including me. Why do we have to have the same name?!! It’s wonderful to be in love and getting married. I’m loving my life, excited about my future, and planning details of a wedding to the man of my dreams. …
A letter to Car: Your friends
Dear Carolyn, Life is messy, isn’t it? Exquisitely so, maybe…but exquisitely messy. My marriage to your husband, I think, is a classic example. Even that sentence, sounds odd, doesn’t it? Let me explain. At your service, your love of packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child was mentioned several times. Your husband said that you imagined …
A letter to Car: Your kids
Dear Carolyn, They wore red. Each of them. Their shirt or in their tie. It was your favorite color and one of the many ways they honored your memory that day. I remember them walking in to the church and down the aisle to the the front, all slow and somber and dressed up. They cleaned up real …
A letter to Car: Your husband
Dear Carolyn, I remember coming back to the office in the afternoon after I attended your funeral and told Melanie, “It was beautiful how he loved her. He spoke so well of her. He spoke to his sons about who she was in a remarkable way that taught us all a little about what makes …
A letter to Car: You
Dear Carolyn, It’s odd isn’t it? The name, “Carolyn” isn’t very common, particularly with our spelling. And yet we share it, just as we now share the same man as our love. What is even odder was that we shared the same profession. There’s not many of us Carolyn’s that are Occupational Therapists. I avoided …
A small light in a big darkness
Today is my annual so-low-that-down-is-up day–I blog about it every year (here in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). The day when we have the least amount of light, and the most amount of darkness. The day that launches a time when the days will only have more light than the day before. More light is coming…just …
Redemptive Suffering
Sometimes a conference is just a conference. Sometimes, a conference pokes pretty deep. Today–well, I got poked. Deep. I attended the Storyline Conference this week, hosted by Donald Miller. He has written one of my favourite books, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years…something I wrote about several times almost 3 years ago when I …
Mindfulness
Join me in a little experiment? Get comfortable. Shake out your arms and legs. Take a couple of deep breaths. Check to see if your shoulders are relaxed. Breath in and out again slowly. And spend a long minute simply noticing this picture, and also notice what you notice about this picture: What did you …
A letter to my silent sons
Dear boys, 21 years ago today you were born. For most moms, that would mean a cheerful greeting of “Happy Birthday” to her boys…and times 2 for twins. 🙂 For this mom, it means visiting your grave. It’s still so sad for me to know that the day of your births was also the …