Lipstick Time

Elaine, Me, Mom. May, 1984. Speeding at a Standstill A few weeks ago, I left on a Thursday evening to meet my daughter. On my way out the door, I slipped a lipstick into my purse. She’d left the tube of Viva Glam in my car the last time I’d seen her and I had […]


My Tongue Still Smolders

I’d Like My Speech to be This Beautiful. The Taming of My Tongue, Part TwoIf you’ve been reading here for a while, you might remember the tale I shared back in March about my bout with thrush, of all things, and how it helped me work on a sinful habit: unkind speech. [Yes, I know […]


Laura’s Last Lesson

The Gazebo at Our Church. In Loving Memory of Laura Lane Barnett. March 4, 1922 – July 31, 2012 On Easter Sunday, 2011, we attended sunrise services held in our new little church’s mountaintop parking lot, right in front of the gazebo.  An elderly couple—the oldest in our congregation—sat beside us. His name was Dr. […]


Living in Great Big Bites

Rear: Elaine, Me in My So-Happy-I’m-Goofy Face, Rich Front: Cadence, Sawyer, Vaite, Rob The Best Kind of Crazy“How, exactly do those French women stay so slim?” I ask my niece, Vaite, over dinner one evening. With her fork she nudges about four bites of homemade macaroni and cheese into a tiny heap on her plate. […]


Privileged

Story Time. Me, Sawyer, Cadence. An Abundance of GracesLast week brought crud, partings, and losses. The weekend began with news of the death of our brother-in-law’s sister. Our niece, Vaite, left us on Tuesday, winging away on a midnight flight from LAX to return to her home in Tahiti. Rich incubated a crummy summer cold to […]