This first December in Texas calls for celebrating new traditions as well as continuing old ones. Monday for Evan’s 41st birthday, we planned a fire pit hotdog roast in our backyard with all the Texas family. Doug had the idea to set up one of Evan’s camp chairs in honor of him. His idea meant…

What is it about Christmas carols? Not the Holly-Jolly-Winter-Wonderland -Rock-Around-the- Christmas -Tree kind; the carols we sang with our kids evenings during advent season in years past. Tears flow at the singing of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, the First Noel, Joy to the World, O Come…

Our response to particular words can derail us from a path of spiritual growth. Recently, a friend commented (via email) that she has been put off by recommendations to practice “detachment”. Though, often recommended by spiritual writers, she couldn’t seem to get past her conception of detachment as aloofness from friends and family or denial…

I haven’t blogged lately, but I’m still here; still writing. Over the past months I’ve used this platform to process and share my grief journey after Evan’s tragic accident. Grief remains, but it demands less of me lately, and I don’t experience the same compulsion to share. I do write elsewhere. In addition to journaling,…

August is here. The 9th of this month marks 18 months since Evan died. People ask how we are doing. It’s amazing when I stop to think about it. We are doing well. I speak of Evan often. I suppose I always will. But I cry less and laugh more than I did in the…

On June 25th our family celebrated Christopher’s half-birthday. He didn’t suspect a thing and Xhiv and I had so much fun planning it. She ordered decorations and party favors and set up things for the little ones to do so the adults could have conversations. It was up to me to keep Chris away from…

Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the wilderness I make a way,in the wasteland, rivers. Isaiah 43:18 & 19 Here in Houston we must familiarize ourselves with a new city, a new…

My kitten was soft and gentle and I loved the purring noise she made as she sat on my lap and the way her tongue almost tickled my hand when she licked me. I was about ten-years-old and our barn cat had given birth to a few kittens. Unfortunately the whole litter contracted a disease…

Today I write to honor my dear friend Kris Franklin. She was a true friend who recently and suddenly died. I’m reeling with grief. My words will inevitably fall short of conveying the depth and beauty of our friendship, nor could they ever do justice to the brilliant light she was in the world, but…

In February, when we moved two doors down from Cana and Ennie we knew our lives would be intertwined with theirs like never before. Then Chris and Xhiv moved back home too. All of us are living through an inconvenient and messy remodel, knowing that life will be more settled in a few more months….