Let's be Real
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Peace, Love, and Flower Power
“Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting mirroring injustice, the act of disarming the evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight, but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.” Common Prayer: A Liturgy for the Ordinary Radical My niece went through a hippie, tie-dye, bohemian, ragamuffin, dress herself, quite amazingly I might add, phase. This was when she was five or six. She would style things that you wouldn’t think of putting together, and proceeded…
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You Say… I Say…
Everyone has some sort of accent, a way of speaking. We emphasize certain letters, and draw out parts of words, or even shorten words. It comes with the life we live. It makes up part of who we are. There is another category all together, which I’m not sure how you would define it other than genius new versions of words. Let me explain. The majority of the words I am about to present to you, are words that children have used. It’s how their ears hear the word, and how their mind interprets the word, and then how their mouth translates, or attempts to translate the word. I don’t…
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Make a Move!
Today, I am going to share a post that one of my friends shared on Instagram this past week. I met Derrica (pictures of her in High School at YL camps above😊) through Young Life in high school, twenty something years ago, which explains the good ole’ flip phone in the picture (that was some top tech there to all you younger folks!). Derrica, a.k.a. “Mama D,” is one of those friends that you can just say her name and the warmth of her friendship and countenance just fills your soul with an abundance of joy! She was the homecoming queen, the student body president, everybody loves Derrica! But she…
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Caught and Held Accountable
Aaaa! The prayer that many parents have prayed, “our children will be caught and held accountable for their actions.” And I won’t tell how I know that God takes this prayer seriously, but HE DOES, 1000%! Truth. Lies. Grace. Shame. These are just words that we flippantly throw around. “Half truths,” “little white lies or sins,” “shameful lies or sins”… defining these words are strongly influenced by how they were approached growing up. Our core right and wrong feelings and emotions begin before we can even speak or crawl. The reactions of those caring for us initiate the first lessons in molding our opinions and thoughts in these important areas…
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Grief and Grace
The wonderfully crazy little thing called life caught up with me last week, and forced me to rest. My last post, I had written about how some first times are also the last time, by God’s wonderful grace we don’t know this at the time. To be able to have the memories period, becomes a huge place of gratitude for those who experience these first but last times. I know I have written before about the very real physical side of grief, and the toll it can take on your body. Having just gone through and recovering from a really hard week of this form of grief, let me just…
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Try a Little Tenderness
I am just going to jump right in today, because if I am completely honest, I have a lot of questions that I am not sure if anyone is willing to answer or even discuss, or at least not in public. So here it goes, I apologize for the small bit of politics that will get me to my questions… The President has made it 100 days (or has it been months?) and if he was going for record breaking numbers, which I think we know he absolutely loves BIG, he seems to very proud and at ease with his agenda. I, of course assume this because if he was…
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Heartburn
Every time I come across a picture or video of Lucy getting mad – it makes me giggle, because one of the first things they asked me in the ER was, “Is she vocal?” She wasn’t speaking words, but she had a voice and she used it! She was just taking in her surroundings. When they started poking her they found out just how big of a voice she had 😂 That’s my girl! Some days I have a cascading day of “medical triggers.” (I am not sure what else to call them, because one triggers another, and most of the time there wouldn’t be a simple connection between them.)…
- "Life" Books, Aunt-ing, Children, Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Let's be Real, Pass it On..., Siblings
Do You Like Me?
But he was in his room, wasn’t he? We thought he was safe, didn’t we? What harm can he do in there? Exchange of questions between Jamie’s Parents in the 4-part miniseries, Adolescence You have probably heard of this miniseries, and you may be tired of hearing about it. I ask you, please give me a few sentences and then you can choose to close your browser if you would like to stop reading. Along with most of the world, I have been shook by this miniseries. Not necessarily by the truth it exposes, but by the guts it took to actual put real life in the homes of families…
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When Your Lucky Underpants Don’t Work
They should gamify your medical records so that each time you have a new and exciting symptom, you unlock an achievement in MyChart. Haha! If only this was true! I recently requested all my records – it took them a while – but I eventually received a digital file of a beautiful 7,000+ pages of records. I didn’t just request them for the fun of requesting them. I wanted them to go over some of my medical history. However, the overwhelming gratitude I have for every doctor, nurse, therapist, radiologist, the list goes on- who cared for and treated me – only explodes as I read through these pages. And…
- "Life" Books, Consider This..., Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Let's be Real, Pass it On...
Meet Them Where They Are
Every once in a while my Mom will leave me encouraging notes, or something she has read, or sometimes a comic strip. This week she left me a story from Guideposts. And the story was about an older man, who had made an impact on this family’s life, in many different ways. The adult children of the writer remembered that when they were little, “he always bent low.” What a legacy! The opportunity he saw in a child, to simply take the time to get on their level, which was probably increasingly difficult, but he saw this as something of great worth. I also can say I have had those…
