Finding Joy on the Journey in Faith, Family, and all Things in Between.
My kids ran everywhere. Racing the shoreline and dipping their toes in the shallow pools that collected when the tide went out. Sun, hot and foreign to the Oregon coast danced on my bare shoulders. Our coast is a fickle mistress, quick to turn frigid in wind and wave. So when she beckoned at 80 degrees with full sun I scoured the internet for a rental house and last-minute deals. We packed for … [Read more...]
For the rest of her life she will be my little girl. My only girl. In a week, she will be 8 years old. Today, she clung to me in a moment of high strung emotion uncommon for her. As her sleepy eyes welled with tears and she pushed her face into the curve just above my hip, into the fleshy part of my side, the spot where she curls herself into when we snuggle for story time or she bruises her … [Read more...]
I was five when they told her I might die. My delicate spine bruised like a blooming flower in yellows and violets and then the dull brown of dying blood. It was this blood that was no good. The very thing we had in common. I lay in sterile pallor on the thin bed, crinkling under the sheet with the plastic covering, ready to be stripped down and reused again, should the bed be vacated by … [Read more...]
First a word on where my heart is. This was a post I wrote when I started blogging. I want to grow roots deep into the foundation of justice. It’s not enough to be aware of the things that should not be so. The things that cause moments of silence, and downcast eyes, and the “Oh, that’s such a shame, that’s so sad,” as we continue with our hearts blind to our … [Read more...]
I closed the door behind me and melted to the floor, my back against the wall. I pulled my knees into my chest and sobbed, my cries rising in sync with the furious wails of my baby. I didn't know what else to do. I had thrown up all morning, my throat raw and burning even as I cried. I couldn't do this anymore. How did anyone do this? I couldn't even handle the baby I already had and a … [Read more...]
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000035_00019]](http://narrowpathstohigherplaces.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/11/Spirit_Led_Cover300-194x300.jpg)
I clicked instantly with Megan's superwatt smile and Laura's warm and genuine conversation. We met at my first blogging conference, Blissdom. The conversation trailed into the new book they were co-authoring and I knew it was going to be great, not just because of their gorgeous hearts, although that's evident in the pages, but also in the fact that they could have been telling my exact … [Read more...]
Today I am blessed to host Emily Wierenga's beautiful writing. I connected with Emily when I started reading her blog and learned of her upcoming book, Chasing Silhouettes: How to help a loved one battling an eating disorder. She is an impassioned voice in the midst of so much confusion about eating disorders and body image. I relate to her words not as someone who battled anorexia but as … [Read more...]
Tomorrow I'll be 34. Today if you're reading this on Friday. And in those 34 years there are some things I've yet to grasp. Like how to get that perfect messy bun that looks cute and whimsical without somehow crossing the line into ratted and messy, sprigs of hair sprouting from the nest of some unfettered creature. Pinterest has tutorials and apparently a lot of time and … [Read more...]
Jen says that bookstores remind her of hope. And I get that. Because the potential is bound within those covers, sewn into each page, the hope of learning new things, being changed by the words as they flow into our lives, sparking imagination and wisdom. We all enter in awe, almost reverent, each of us moving into different sections of the store. We browse the stacks slowly, moving … [Read more...]
She prays. In her small way. Not loud or waxing eloquent. Not filled with scripture or doctrinal truths. Both bold in her requests and humble. Laid low as she petitioned her Lord. And the answers didn't always come the way she hoped. But they always came. She prayed the way a mother prays when her kids are lost. Fervent, fumbling words and sometimes just the moaning and pleading with God that … [Read more...]
Judah, There is something so significant in the relationship with one’s firstborn. You were the fire that tried me. And I know that often, so often, I failed in the flames. And yet, there you were, handed to me in that room, a perfect gift to a mother so unworthy. I studied you and you seemed to know that I was utterly clueless. Oh, I had my ideas, my goals, all dashed at the first nursing … [Read more...]
I didn't write on mother's day. I didn't write anything about my mom. I didn't write about all the things I love about her or the many ways she's blessed me. I didn't tell her that she is the most faithful woman I know. She had to be, to put up with us kids and my dad. I didn't tell her that the prayers she prayed for me during the years when I was lost and angry and wandering were … [Read more...]
In the interest of being "real," I must say that my meetup was not what I expected. I thought my follow-up post would be different than this. But this is real, and so here goes. I wish I could say that it was life changing and I forged ahead with new friendships that would carry on and someday we would look back at that exact moment in time when we first clicked the meetup link and know … [Read more...]
I can hear the soft rustle of her feet as she pads sleepily down the hall. I see tiny hands with chipped pink polish, lifting the blankets edge and then the softest wisp of a breathe on the side of my cheek as she nestles into the curve of my arm and settles where my heart beats. She is so beautiful to me. Her soft hair flowing over the pillow. He pulls up on the bed, grasping with tiny … [Read more...]
We are the world changers. The visionaries. We are the strongest political movement ever known. We have no borders or bounds. We seek to establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility through grace filled lives, serving hands, and faithful hearts. We are the diplomats of grace. The people with hands made to serve and hearts made to heal and branch out. We are the vine gatherers, … [Read more...]
Copyright © 2012 · Narrow Paths to Higher Places · Powered by Wordpress · Built by :: Fluid Web Studio ::
