The Ring
My sister-in-law, for my twenty-ninth birthday, mailed me a tiny gold ring inset with a freshwater pearl. Her cards are always the best—each square inch of paper filled with words of encouragement—and in that card she told me I was
Why We’re Moving Back
Today, Father’s Day, seems the appropriate time to write that our family is moving back to Tennessee, because the reconciliation of family is what’s driving this return. Before we moved to Wisconsin in November 2014, I stood in the carport with
Hope Springs Eternal
Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed: The soul, uneasy and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come. – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man My parents flew in from Tennessee on Friday. After I tucked my girls in bed, I pushed open the door to step out on the porch when I heard my mom say into her
Balancing Motherhood & Artistry
This Wednesday, while hiding in the bathroom, I tried to call local libraries and bookstores to line up book events for The Alliance, but my girls (four years old and nineteen months) couldn’t stand being separated from me. So, they pounded on the door and twisted on the handle until I had to open it and usher them inside. The three of us stood in front of the sink, looking at each other in the mirror, as I continued to wait on hold. A few hours later, I received an extortion letter that required me to sit on the floor while a stranger told me how much I (allegedly) owe. Needless to say, Wednesday was not my favorite and had my husband praying before dinner, “Thank you for this . . . day.” And then he opened his eyes and grinned at me across the table because, in that pause, he'd purposefully omitted the word “good.” But then, as my husband and I were tucking our eldest into bed, she looked at me and said, "Did your book camed out?" I titled my head. "My book?" She nodded in the dark. "The one with the plane. Did it camed out?" I touched her chin. "No, not yet." "But your other ones camed out?" I smiled at her, my throat tight. "Yes. two." My husband and I looked at each other across her pink comforter, and the stress from the entire day just melted off me. I could tell by my his smile that it had melted off him too. Sometimes, if I’m just honest with you (and what's the point of all this if I'm not?), I wonder if I’m making the right choice by pursuing an author career while my children are so young. I wonder if, otherwise, I’d do more macaroni crafts, read more books, be more patient, bake complicated, raw-food cookies that my children actually like. What if--once my
“Open the door of my heart. Quick!”
Nudging my husband’s side in panic, I said, “Honey! Somebody’s at the door!” To many of you, hearing a knock at 9:35 at night probably wouldn’t incite such a breathless response. But my husband and I live in an apartment adjacent to
The Power of Music
Monday morning, fresh from the shower, I opened the vintage music box I’d gotten for Christmas and took out my earrings, then turned the little dial so the music would play. Miss A, my almost four-year-old, watched from her perch
Walking Into a New Year, Side By Side
My mom and I sat on rockers on her and my dad’s front porch, listening to the wet-weather creek rushing by in the darkness. The stars were so clear, it was as if I was no longer near-sighted. Around the
A Gift, Restored
It started out, as in all things in this present age, with a YouTube video. I was folding a pile of whites when my husband beckoned me over to his computer and said, “I’d like to do this one day.” A
The Ones Who Make It Home
Last night, I was sitting in the field beside our house. The hay had just been cut and rolled into bales. The clouds were dark and rippling behind the tree tops; fireflies floated above the shorn grass. My dog was beside
Just As You Are
In the car, I read from the Bible, merely because I felt like I needed some biblical refreshment before I duct-taped my husband to the driver’s seat. Ten minutes later, I breathed deep, looked over, and said, “It would have all