I'm just trying to walk myself home.
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A Story about Making New Friends “Hi, I’m Flea.” she said as she sat down next to me in the airport. “Hi! I’ve been so excited to meet you! I’m Alison.” “And this is Simon.” “Simon, can you say hello?” “Hi.” (small quiet voice) I’ve mentioned before that Simon and I are introverts. In fact …
A Story about the Man in Seat 68 If Kings Cross is the heaven of train stations, clean even when it is not serving as the setting for Harry Potter’s interlude between death and life, then Gare de Lyon is hell. Deceptively gorgeous from the outside, the inside is filthy and chaotic, more keenly felt …
A Story about Trying Something New Or alternately titled, Stepping into the Arena Once upon a time I stood up in front of people and made a fool out of myself. I’m not sure how else to put it. I acted (badly) in plays, I sang some especially mediocre ‘specials’ with my sister in church. …
A Story about Westminster Abbey She stood at the end of a row of empty seats, searching the arriving crowd with anticipation. She would wave when she saw them, familiar faces in the crowd of mostly tourists come to hear the Eucharist sung in one of the most glorious, most celebrated cathedrals in the world. …
Beauty from Ashes Twelve years ago today, we received one of those phone calls you never want to get. A family friend called from Switzerland to let Taido know that his father had tragically drowned trying to recover his daughter, Maya, who had also drowned. Maya, Taido’s half-sister, was five years old at the time, …
A Story about Yoga {On the Beach} It was that time of day when the light is so magical you can hardly bear to tear yourself away from staring at the horizon, except that there are young children with you who do not care about the color of the sky. They care about making it …
Day 5 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Wooler to Lindisfarne From the moment we received our itinerary, the last day of our journey along St Cuthbert’s Way loomed large with its big number 18 in the mileage chart. Before we ever left home, I was harboring doubt about whether I …
Day 4 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Kirk Yetholm to Wooler Anna and I knew we would be walking some in the rain along St Cuthbert’s Way, mainly because over the half the walk is in Scotland. And if there’s one thing I have learned about Scotland in the last year, it’s that you can count …
Day 3 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Morebattle to Kirk Yetholm On our third day of walking we confirmed one thing for certain. When it came to estimating how long it would take us to finish a day’s walking, we were absolute rubbish. On our first day, we’d predicted 5:30pm and were two hours off. The …
Day 2 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Harestanes to Morebattle “Our guidebook says we only have to go 10 miles today.” “The printout from Macs says it’s only 9.” “Well, that’ll be a cake walk after yesterday!” “Easy peasy!” Anna had figured out with her FitBit that the previous day we had managed to turn what …
“This country would be really beautiful if it was warm and sunny.” We had just gotten off the bus in Melrose and were standing in front of Melrose Abbey in the rain. Melrose Abbey is the starting place of St Cuthbert’s Way, a 63 mile walk across the Scottish Borders into England and out on …
A Story about a 1D Concert Some things in this world just have to be experienced rather than enjoyed. Even though I love being outdoors, I can also admit that a long day of climbing can be rough. Especially if it is raining. But rough days both build and reveal our character. And often …
I try not to hate airports. I really do. Hating is just not in keeping with the positive energy force for good that I want to be in life. So I focus on the end goal of what the airport, or more accurately the airplane, is bringing. A new destination. An adventure. Or arriving home …
My sister has an uncanny ability to accomplish whatever she sets her mind to. She does not waste a lot of time on the what ifs. She pushes forward and deals with problems as they come. It’s not that she thinks everything will always run smoothly and be perfect. She anticipates that there will be …
My home church in Arkansas, the one I grew up in and that my Daddy preaches at, is celebrating being a church for 30 years this June. In honor of that anniversary, I wrote this story: Sunday Showers circa 1989. Mother had just settled into her Sunday afternoon state of being half asleep on …
She made me a scarf at Christmas. Crocheted by her little hands, the same hands my grandmother had and that I have. Sky blue cozy yarn. To match my eyes and to keep me warm. All through the long cold Scottish winter. I wore it double wrapped around my neck for all of January and …
A Story about Simon Simon is growing up so fast that sometimes I forget how much he still has to learn. Being the youngest means he is constantly trying to keep up with the older three. In fact, even though he is almost eight, he has just discovered all the Disney movies. He fell in …
A Story about Ben When my kids were still very young, before Simon was even born, I went through a season where I was really into personality testing. My favorite ones followed the four temperaments (or humors) from Ancient Greek medicine. Four temperaments is a proto-psychological theory that suggests that there are four fundamental personality …
A Story about Cole Hello, Mom? I’m in trouble and I need you to come pick me up. As a mom, you know you might get this phone call one day, but it still surprises you that first time it happens. Cole is my first child. I have strong memories of his nights as a …
A (Short) Story about Spring When she came through the door, she handed me a small wooden charm. It was a colorful shamrock shape, tied with red and white striped string. “We wear these in my country when we are waiting for spring to come.” “What a lovely tradition!” I said, as I took it …