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How the Light Gets In
I draw a turtle on a whiteboard and tell the story of Twyla Turtle. “What should Twyla do today?” I ask my 2 ½-year-old granddaughter during our FaceTime call. She has been home for a week after nearly 2 months of sheltering in place with her parents, baby brother, my husband, and me. Now my house is clean and calm. And empty without two little people that round out the ones I love most. “Twyla wants to go to the zoo,” she says. I glance at her face up close in my phone and feel a surge of love. Then at her request, I draw a zookeeper, her baby brother,…
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Simple Living this Christmas
I can’t stop thinking about Christmas. Probably because all of our children will be under our roof for an extended time. We’re spread across 3 time zones – in fact, everyone has a new address this year – so being together in person is a rare occurrence and gift enough for me. Usually, I pull out Christmas decor Thanksgiving weekend, but this year we were gone. After I unpacked, I went to the basement to get the Christmas bins. I saw partially unpacked boxes and open bins from our move. I couldn’t bring myself to pull out more clutter before I tried to organize what I had. I’ve had several…
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First Responders: Lifelong Friends
My friend and I are 7 years old. We are at my house and we’re trying to make sense of a terrible fact. Her little brother rides his bike out of the driveway. He is hit by a garbage truck. One moment he is here. The next he is gone. Her house is full of family but is strangely empty too. We never figure it out, but we try, together. Through the years we write letters. Our families have been close since she moved to Oklahoma at age 5. Through moves and adolescence, our friendship ebbs and flows. It’s always there. My other friend and I are 10 years old.…
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Vulnerability and Victory in 7 million steps
The alarm went off at 5:15am. I wanted to hit the snooze button and snuggle deeper under the covers. But I didn’t. My husband was stirring, plus our friends would be in our driveway in 15 minutes. Every Friday (rain or shine, snow or ice) for more than 2 years my husband and I threw on tennis shoes and sweatshirts and met Tylee and Larence Searle for a 5-mile walk. In the stillness of all those mornings before the sun rose, we walked over 7 million steps or 28 million if you combine the 4 of us. It started as a way to exercise and quickly morphed into sacred time.…
