Searching for silver in storm clouds
It’s been ages since I wrote a post in my series about fruits of the spirit. I’ve felt a bit stuck on the theme of kindness – trying to think of something new and fresh to say on the topic. Or perhaps I should just say that I’ve felt stuck “trying to think”. It’s been a busy, exhausting couple of months. Most of the time right now I feel as if I’m walking around with half a working brain, a quarter of my personality, twice my normal quotient of irritability and anxiety, and not a single flicker of creative inspiration. These last few months have not been my favorite season of...
Read MoreMany hands make much kindness
The month of patience for my fruits of the spirit project is over (thank goodness) and the month of kindness has begun. Before it started, I assumed that this month would be all about me learning how to be more kind to others. So far, however, it’s pretty much been about me accepting kindness from others. It all started before we moved house in Laos, when my parents spent some of their visit packing boxes and helping me sort clothes. Then, the week before the move, half a dozen friends showed up to help us pack. They wrapped up pictures, moved books, boxed up our entire kitchen, and even...
Read MoreFifteen years of longsuffering
It has been the month of patience. Or, maybe more appropriately, it has been the month of patience being tested. The last six weeks has held one broken leg (Dominic), two courses of antibiotics for intestinal infections (Mike and me), three trips to Thailand (all of us), and five colds. It’s been more than a month since Dominic broke his leg and I still don’t want to write about it. Truth be told, I don’t even want to think about it. Because every time I remember hearing the crash after Mike’s mother slipped and landed on the stairs, then the long pause, then that awful, piercing...
Read MoreFrom Peace to Patience
Every day of life is a gift. Sometimes, however, the daily gift feels a bit like finding polyester socks – the kind that make your feet sweat and itch – under the Christmas tree. So it has been every day this week. I’ve had a vicious head cold – the kind that makes it impossible to breathe easily and sends sharp pain through your ears. I’m also still breastfeeding, so can’t take any of the good stuff (the stuff that they now sell from behind the pharmacy counter in the US because people were buying it in bulk and using it to make illegal drugs). It’s only this morning, on day...
Read MorePeace Like A River
Two weeks after Dominic was born, Mike announced that he was going out for a bike ride. “Just a 50km loop,” he said. “I’ll be back within two hours.” I nodded and told him to have a good ride, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to cry. I wanted to clutch him and beg him not to go. I wanted to demand that he tell me how I would survive if a car hit him – which happens to cyclists all the time, you know – while he was being so irresponsible as to be out riding for fun. Fun. What was he thinking to be indulging in something so very dangerous and call it fun? I had...
Read More
