“Nothing of value has no obstacles in its path.” Dr. Henry Cloud When a family member had an appendectomy, I was asked, “How many caesarean’s did you have?!” I had three and he was amazed I had more than one child. Abdominal surgery recovery is no joke. It’s physically traumatic. Hell, for me, pregnancy itself was physically traumatic. Nine months of discomfort was bad enough, the surgery was a boon compared to that. An end of my suffering. And yes, I did it two more times. You see, I believed Henry. I was willing to go through what I had...

I received a gorgeous bouquet of cut flowers for my birthday.  The sweetest thing, to know you are thought well of by a loving friend.  The beautiful centerpiece reminded me for days, I am loved.  A week later the flowers’ colors were still vibrantly alive although the leaves had started to brown.  The fragrance though, was not altogether lovely and at that point, the beauties had to go.  As I gathered them up for the trash, I lamented the fact that beauty in our world is so temporary.  I see it daily as my face and figure falls sway to...

For this girl, a not-particularly-good-at-history, middle class, sheltered child, Memorial Day meant the pool was opening!  Not very deep, but I’d actually love it if my kid had the same summers I had. Depart at morning, ride bikes to the pool, come home for lunch and disappear back into the neighborhood until Mom blew her fierce, two-fingered whistle around dinner time.  Those memories are great and I remember them well. Unlike my fun memories, I’d guess plenty of people have times from their childhoods where the memories are more of a haunting kind they’d like to forget. How beautiful when...