If our daughters were treated like our sons
A few days ago we were all invited to take a trip inside an alternate reality and imagine what the world might look like if our sons were treated like our daughters, based on the story of Logan. It’s only fair, I think, to take another trip, inside another reality,...
When your family tree looks more like a stump
A month ago we took the three-hour trip to my hometown. My mom rented the same facility where my husband and I handed out gifts to our parents and our bridesmaids and groomsmen the evening before our wedding. This time she rented it for a goodbye, because cancer is eating away her stepmother. She walked […]
How children heal the father wound
I am one of the fatherless ones. According to the statistics, I should have turned my angst toward drugs. I should have run with the racy crowd. I should have dropped out of school and skipped college altogether and raised my parcel of kids on my own. Instead, I graduated at the top of my […]
Love is not a fairy tale…but that doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful
It’s the familiar smell of his skin, the way it stretches across his back, just waiting for my touch; and it’s his arms wrapping all the way around me, even when I’ve been a little crazy and weepy and anxious; and it’s his voice, filling the house with music always....
The evolution of love: a tribute
(Photo by Helen Montoya Henrichs.) (For my beloved, who has always been The One, even when I didn’t yet know.) In these years of marriage, I have watched my love bloom and grow and change, and I have learned that evolution is real, that it is here in this heart, here...
What love looks like in real life
Valentine’s Day is not a hugely important day in our home—maybe one of those “minor holidays” that fall somewhere behind the birth of Christ and the birth of each other. I mean, we buy the boys a little box of chocolates and maybe a new stuffed puppy and talk a little...
Some thoughts on love
“A happy marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short.” -Amish saying Love is… Warm and enveloping, an arm around me while we sleep, a breath stroking my neck in a so-silent wake-up call. Soft and gentle, a soulful smile that softens the eyes, the...
On love: a gentle blooming
We are the only ones awake in these early morning hours. His daddy snores beside us. It’s been six days since I met this newest love of mine, six days watching the whole world crack open, again, six days feeling my own heart crack open and wrap tight and firm around...
The thing about birthdays
Time has been holding my hand these last few weeks. Not in the way of an intimate friend, but in the way of an impatient parent trying to drag a slow-to-get-ready-child out the door so they won’t be late. It’s not the last stage of pregnancy that makes me feel so...
When awards (or no awards) begin to tell us who we are
He’s home from school now, this day when he was recognized by his teacher as Star Student, a lofty award, for his courtesy and help and kindness, and he hasn’t stopped grinning since he walked through the door. It’s a badge of honor for this 5-year-old boy who has...