Ordinary Life

All Hallow: Everything Belongs To Him / Article and Photo by Kelly Brewer[/caption] Sugar Rush Weekend  For a little over a decade now, I’ve referred to the days surrounding Halloween as “Sugar Rush Weekend” not only for the inevitable  * plastic pumpkins overflowing with fun-sized cand y, but also for the two regulation birthday cakes due after the last car trunk or house has been visited. Today is Halloween. All Saints Eve Twenty-one years ago, my son was born on All Saints Day . (Tomorrow) Thirteen years ago, my daughter was born on All Souls’ Day . (Two days from now)  This holiday season has long been on our family radar for more than costume parties and pumpkins. I named my children with purpose and the significance of the days they were born are of special  interest to me, too.  Somewhere along the line, I had a fuzzy misconception that All Saints and All Souls days, as well as  Dia de los Muertos  must serve primarily for ancestor worship....

    New Vision  In Part 1 , " Was Blind: The Gift of Cataracts "  I had just been handed an application for financing double cataract surgery. Rather than pretending to build up suspense (because most of my readers are related to me and already know what happened) I’ll skip directly to the end: I was approved for the financing. I had both surgeries. And they worked!  I can see clearly now .  Almost too clearly.  Let me explain.  After surgery, everything was brand new . I was suddenly more aware of how bad my vision had become. Or, maybe, now that the threat was behind me, I could allow myself to admit I had been going blind.   Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between suppressing what we fear is true and waiting for more evidence to surface. More often,  they’re comorbid conditions requiring both patience and courage.  After the first surgery, a large, shamrock-shaped cataract was removed from my left eye. :: ...

  Doctor, My Eyes…   “ You are only a few numbers from losing your driver’s license  ”  My ophthalmologist was addressing my concerns about having  surgery.  “ I’m worried I’ll have this surgery but find cataracts aren’t the cause. I’ll be making a lifelong choice for glasses. ”  I explained.  He gently took the reins of the conversation. His answer, both figurative and literal, was resolved: “Oh, it is the cataracts. We’ll take them out and you’ll see .  “ I respect your expertise… “ I meant it “I just don’t understand why the cataract specialist didn’t operate at the beginning of all this .”  “ Because you’re young and there’s a bigger chance of retinal detachment when you’re young. But, it’s still a very small likelihood” he was completely convinced  “you’ll need readers, yes, but how are you seeing without using glasses now? “   His smile elicited a mental touche’ from my place in the oversized exam chair.  I s...

Suicide By Sincerity  There is a way to die  Slowly And all alone:  Be sincere  Now wait For the noose Of misunderstanding Cunning pulls the trigger Planting  e vidence everywhere  Choosing to live with sincerity, I am misunderstood, or sometimes,  more painful, purposely maligned.  Understanding these consequences,  still, I press on.  

DEEP SEA  SLEEPER   Yes, we are lighthouses Shining hope and direction for those Tossed at sea    But there is a time To turn out the light And go to sleep   

 I think I know now  The answer - at least in part: I have not wanted it to be true  I have wanted who I thought I knew To be the real you.  ~~  Wanting a true friend One who stays,  Sells everything to buy the field  Doesn't just walk away  ~~ There have been so many wolves in this house  Grandma, what big mistakes I've made.

What God Hates   God hates divorce , not divorced people.  God loves people. Let's pause right here because that is the entirety of what I have to say, but my word count is supposed to be a bit higher. As words multiply, truth grows muffled. So please, if I may, I’d just like to remind you today:  God hates divorce , not divorced people. God loves people. Statements like this tend to provoke argumentative replies from certain camps.  To follow  “God hates  - name any sin-  . ”   with a declaration of His love provokes a panic as if we’ve just turkey-dropped permission slips with God’s forged signature to all humanity.  Scenarios of affairs and abandoned families spring to the virile imaginations of many a worried mind. There’s real concern we’re gonna make God mad.  Imaginary scenarios are… imaginar y.  If someone is looking for validation to do or be a thing, that thing is, in all reality, already an inevitability. Sought aff...

For years I have been keeping notes on my phone and scrawled-on paper fragments in a scattered collection of what I refer to as  '  ThoughtStrings  '  I've often said that someday, I'll knit them together into a patchwork story quilt or two... which has been my reason for jotting stuff down in the first place... I want to come back, preferably at a more-quiet-less-busy time to think more on these breeze-strewn strands.  Sometimes, when I pick one up, I have no idea what I was thinking, or why.  Other times, I smile as I think back on the versions of me I have been, or cry (just a little!) over where I'll never go again.  Each time, I am grateful that I stopped long enough to take a snapshot with my pen.  Going forward,  I'll be sharing those old coat pocket scraps, tagged '  ThoughtStrings '   with or without commentary.  If transparency and vulnerability are essential ingredients to courageous writing, here's looking at m...

             Transparency: Finding Balance Between True and Kind[/caption] Best Laid Plans  When I first talked with the editors here @Patheos about what I hoped to say from this little cubby hole, I imagined a place where, despite the anxious climate of Earth, we would, to cite the Deep Magic , focus on “ what-so-ever things are lovely, good and true, whatever is noble and of a good report… ” while connecting friends who find themselves navigating similar waters.  I imagined bringing hope to someone knee-deep in divorce proceedings, or  comforting the anxious mind of a parent, mid-custody battle.  I wanted to cheer on the homeschooling mom or the back-to-work mom, or the mom whose nest is suddenly too empty. All waters I’ve baled from my own canoe.  I wanted to use things I had been through to remind others they aren’t alone.  I still want to.  I’ve just been working on my tightrope skills.  How do I say  ...

AT MY SERVICE At my service what will be true  of my service ?