I'm still here, friends. Thanks for checking in. I bring with me a story to describe my month-long absence. In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Alice finds herself in the company of the Red Queen. They are hand in hand, running, running, running. The wind whistles in Alice's ears. Her hair streams behind her, and her feet skim the ground. She runs so hard she can hardly…
Save me, O God,for the waters have come up to my neck.Psalm 69:1 The truth about treading water is that it does beat drowning. The rest of the truth is that you can't do it half-way; staying afloat only happens when you bring all your energies to bear on the effort.People don't enter deep water intending to stay in one place indefinitely. But when they find themselves up to…
It's probably the kindergarten teacher in me, but I think all our lives we are playing one giant game of Freeze Tag. You remember that game? When you are tagged, you freeze instantly, stuck mid-stride until someone touches you to unfreeze you. The person who froze you may have snuck up on you from behind and taken you off-guard, or you may have seen him or her coming, but one…
One summer afternoon, Jack and I were driving home from the shore in bumper to bumper traffic. As usual, he was paying attention to his surroundings. "Too bad that guy spent more than a million bucks for that car and can only drive it 35 mph like the rest of us." "Which one?" I asked. "The red or the green?" "The blue. Or he could be like…
It must be admitted up front that Jack and I liked receiving birthday cards as much for the checks taped inside as for the content of the cards. I'm just being honest. We saw the signatures, thought of the hands that wrote them and the people who loved us. And then we made a point to go to the bank and cash them in. Those checks weren't the actual…
I heard a true story about a friend who was vacationing with her family by a lake. One day she fell asleep on her raft. Through the course of the afternoon she drifted out quite a distance until someone noticed her predicament and sent a boat out to bring her back.The storyteller then asked, "What did she have to do in order to drift?" And…
I first noticed Jack diving backwards into the pool at Covenant College. It was 1973 and we were both starting school as freshmen. He was wearing a floppy hat and one wild-looking pair of jams. I didn't know it was Jack at the time, actually. I was unpacking and happened to look out the window at this guy who was clearly part duck. He knew…
I've started this entry a number of ways. I can't seem to focus. I have lots I've been thinking about, stuff I want to talk over with you, but when I shine a light on one piece in order to examine it more closely, that part evaporates. This was my brain. And this is my brain on grief -- rapped smartly against an immovable object, whisked around…
If I asked you to name five words that make your day, what would you say?How about, "My treat. You pick where." Or possibly better, "Who knew? It's calorie free!"Today I heard five words that cheered me, and they were these: "Do you have a vase?"Shortly after affirming that I did, indeed, have a vase, my doorbell rang. There stood my friend, with a bouquet of magnificent flowers in…
Two months ago today, when this bus of Life we're all riding on braked unexpectedly to let Jack off at his stop, I know I was not the only one lurched off balance. Each one of you stood in some proximity to him. Now that shared space has been forever changed. These last two months, we have been helping one another get up and find new places to stand. Together we've been dusting off,…