Easter cookies, one for each member of our family, compliments of Bridgy! I've been rolling out cookie dough on this old marble washstand for nearly 30 years! I bought it in 1992, at the old Spivey's Antique store on May Avenue in Oklahoma City. Two years after I...
I took Sullivan and Bridgette to Tennessee for Spring Break for a long overdue visit with my oldest sister. (You can see a picture of us on Instagram.) She will have major surgery on March 27, and I'm not too proud or shy to ask anyone reading this post to please say...
I first learned about novenas when my friend Laurie left a little book on my porch when my daughter was in North Africa. I was so worried about my girl traveling so far from home, and the book was an offering of faith, grace, prayer and comfort. It was one of the most...
The other day, I heard my late mother's spirit tell me to write from my heart. That the secret to my success as a writer would come from being honest. I need to excavate the truth to the tip of my tongue, and no longer second-guess the Spirit that flows through me. I...
When I saw her body laying on the kitchen floor, I was overcome with sorrow. All the life had gone out of her. It slipped away in the dark morning of Christmas Eve. I know she raged against it. After all, she had fought for years to stay with us. Through endless...
My mother had her first heart attack the year I turned 21. It was the late 1980s, and the country was in a recession. Junk bonds had collapsed and stocks had crashed. Both my parents were unemployed, and for months neither one of them could find work. Sadly, my mom...
Will you laugh just like your mother Will you sigh like your old man Will some things skip a generation Like I've heard they often can Are you a poet or a dancer A devil or a clown Or a strange new combination of The things we've handed down -- Marc Cohn, 1993 It has...
In the morning, when I awake, I hear my mother tell me to start my day with prayer. She is here guiding me, seeing me for the first time in true color and light. The reality of my days. All that she missed in the time we spent apart while I worked and plugged along in...
My mother has died. It was in the late night hours of December 23 or in the early morning hours of December 24. The time of death has not yet been determined, although I'm sure it was the twenty-third because her bed was made and she wasn't wearing her nightgown. It...
It was a damp November day when autumn leaves, like parade confetti, covered a statue of a boy who died. "Who is that?" my child asked, peering through the beads of rain. For a moment I lost consciousness, spellbound by the judder of the wiper blades. "Someone's son,"...
During church this week, Sullivan passed his Bible to me and said, "Read Psalms 56: 1-4, Mom." I shushed him and told him to listen to the homily. When we got home, he was a live wire, as is often the case, and he decided to try to light a candle with a candle. Tell...
Today, my daughter Bridgy was an altar server for the first time. I posted a picture on Instagram to commemorate the occasion. Church has been a part of my life since before I was born. The older I get, the more I enjoy it, but I still get nostalgic for the past. I...