the /grace/ between
The grace poured out between.
On Keeping Them Safe
(Trigger warning: Brief mention of suicide and self harm.) When I turned forty, I thought I said goodbye to a decade of being tired. Chuckbob wasn’t even a thought. COVID was months away. // I remember when my Second Son was just weeks old, and I was a fresh mom...
Hush A Bye, my darling girl. A birthday letter.
(On the occasion of Darling Girl's fifth birthday. Every night she insists I sing the Peter Paul & Mary version of Hush-A-Bye. She can't go to sleep without it.) Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, go to sleep you little baby. When you wake you shall have all the pretty...
An Open Letter to Teachers in 2020
School is out for all of us now. Did you know I wept through the wave parade you threw for our children? I cried for the sacrifices you made and for what you lost this year as well. You may have missed out on Field days and sticky goodbyes and end of year parties...
Prepare Him Room: Making Space
Somewhere around the beginning of December every year, my family would drive to Clarksville, Georgia, and cut down our Christmas tree. Even now I can close my eyes and draw you an exact map of Purcell’s Christmas Tree Farm, from the garage where we sweet-talked...
Tongue Tied
I rarely find myself without words. Ask my husband. And yet, here I am, staring at the screen like I have so many times before, aching to tell you what’s on my heart with no idea how to say it. The last time I wrote here was June, four months late on a birthday...
Eight Times Around The Sun
Eight times around the sun, my not so wee man, 2920 days (plus a few because I’m months late, as usual) you’ve populated our world with the force of your personality. For the record, you love Dogman, actual dogs, baseball, skateboarding, Minecraft, legos, and...
On Gold: An Anniversary Post.
14 years together. 5113 days I’ve pledged myself to you, threading my heart to you in neat, tidy stitches meant to last a lifetime. They’ve been picked at, worried over, and stretched across the globe, but the line holds. Did you know the modern anniversary gift...
On Survivor’s Guilt.
I feel a little bit brittle today. It’s been all week, really. We lost another friend, a soldier, to suicide last weekend. We have other friends, many other friends, who’ve fought this particular battle and lived, but no one ever escapes this one unscathed. I...
I CHOOSE YOU
(A letter to my love, on Valentine's Day, but this could be any day." To my love, When I stood up in front of the ones who love us, just shy of fourteen years and a whole lot of memories ago, and said “I choose you,” - well, I meant it. But what I didn’t know, all...