Standing in the hallway of my school on a break during a professional development day for new teachers, I listened to the nurse navigator from the Breast Care Center as she relayed the news by phone: “You have cancer.” I called my husband. I knew I had others to call as well, but I needed…
Last summer, as I sat at the edge of a creek in North Carolina and watched my children playing, a group of kids about nine years old came whizzing by us. They were running, full speed, and jumping from boulders and over rocks without fear. My mind raced with questions: Where are their parents? What…
Although I’ll always have blurry spots in my memory of it, the trauma that shaped me has remained crystal clear. That’s what our minds do; they jumble information from our past when it becomes too hard to carry it. In processing unfathomable experiences, however, this can help us find our way through to the other…
My daughter confessed to me her deepest fears as I tucked her damp hair behind her ear, wet from her rolling tears. “I’m stupid.” “I’m not pretty enough.” “I can’t be perfect!” “No one will like me.” “I shouldn’t even try.” “I’m too skinny.” These phrases were all too familiar. They hail from ancient history,…
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) My daughter is in her fourth year of dance at a local dance studio. She loves the studio, where she’s been blessed to have kind, caring teachers who make dance…
Are you convinced fear of the unknown is a valid boundary? Sometimes I am. According to the Exeter Daily, “The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3…