The Snail Shell of the Soul
I heard a thunk and returned to the kitchen. My two eldest daughters stood at the patio door and stared down at a female cardinal outside on its back. Its large, orange beak opened and closed as snow flurries clung
What I Want to Be This Year
The other night, after a long day with the girls, I took a walk around our land. Halfway through, on a hillside near where we want to build our home, I stretched across the grass in my down coat and
Who’s Immortal Now?
My husband and I silently sat in our wooden booth, waiting for our breakfast to arrive. It was only 10 o’clock, but we’d been awake for five hours and were still trying to process what the neurosurgeon had said. Though my husband’s
Humans of Tennessee
Three years ago, almost to the day, I purchased two tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but my husband ended up needing brain surgery instead. I remember being on the phone for hours, trying to get our tickets reimbursed, like
Dancing in the Mine Fields
I sat on the porch step with the phone to my ear and stared out at the yard. I didn’t say anything for a moment, because I wasn’t sure how to respond. For weeks, we’d hoped that stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) could
He’s in the Waiting
In June, my husband was due for a scan, but not feeling any urgency, we pushed it off until mid-July. He had an MRI done here in town, and the scans were snail-mailed to his neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic. Then
The Eternity of Daffodils
This week, my five-year-old daughter overheard that two of my in-laws’ puppies died during birth. My daughter is a sensitive soul, and this news greatly disturbed her. But not for the reason you might expect. She wondered if they were going
We Don’t Have a Whole Lot in Common (and That’s Okay)
Our daughters were whining; the back of the van was filled with groceries; a cardboard box was on the floorboard, containing three leftover slices of mushroom pizza. My husband turned on the radio to drown out the noise or to
Setting Our Broken World Right
This afternoon, as we waited for the results of my husband’s MRI and CAT scan, I looked around at the light flooding through Mayo Clinic’s wall of windows, at the pigeons pecking the flat roof of the building below, at
Viewing Beauty Deep
"The more often we see the things around us - even the beautiful and wonderful things - the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the