Both/And…keeping it real

We can do hard things. Acknowledging both the good and hard in everyday life.

  • Leaves on a stream, Montana and taking deep breaths…

    (For my love). “Shhh….” My love wrapped his arms around me, my heart hammering and breath fighting to get down to my lungs. “Imagine a canoe, gliding through the water, no sound, other than the water of the river. Drops drip off the paddle, look around and just see everything with wonder….” After he’d described…

  • Perspective….

    (Disney part 4). June 21, 1996: I had barely turned 23, was enjoying life, post Hope College and still a huge Disney buff. I lived in the small ranch home I’d recently purchased that had been my grandpa’s, with a beloved roommate. She was strong, smart and a person with whom I felt known and…

  • Ink…

    Ink…

    I have a multi-faceted personality, if I can be honest with you. I am all sorts of things: introverted and love when I get to interact with my closest circle or those I find a new connection with; both anxious about the how’s, where’s and what’s that accompany my disability and very comfortable in other…

  • What Disney has taught me about traumatic loss…

    (Disney Part 2.) I have long considered the things I learn from Disney. Some things fun, others silly, still others poignant, which is I think is the biggest draw for most people who return again and again. I know myself well enough to to know as well, that I can find meaning in almost everything,…

  • What we can learn from Ariel, Ursula, shipwrecks, grief and Jesus.

    (Part 1 – Disney series) Can I start very candidly? I hardly know where to start when I think about writing about Disney, Disney movies and how these come together in my day to day…and yet, that’s probably because for me, it all blends together – my interests, my work, family and Jesus (rarely in…

  • For the love of mountains and Jesus; or pink slippers, 10% and unexpected grace.

    (An entirely different post than what I planned be writing this week…) I have been chewing on a post for the last week and half and it is not this one…. Typically, an idea forms and the words come relatively quick. I reword and rework, sometimes erase and rewrite, but the words and ideas seem…