Unfinished Stories:: Kristen Strong
It started out innocently enough, a simple browsing trip to Barnes & Noble where my ten year old could also pick up her summer reading journal sheet. Faith, her brothers, and I wind our way through our city towards the bookstore. Even as I intentionally turn on Rangewood instead of Lexington – one street further away from the gymnastics center – Faith isn’t fooled. Sure enough, she knows right where we are and asks with a sigh, “Mama? Isn’t this the way to gymnastics?” I reply “Well, it’s one way there.” I glance into the rear view mirror and see her turn towards the…
Unfinished Stories :: The IV Angel
She kneels by my daughter’s bed. A friendly young woman. I appreciate that she’s dressed in black slacks and a ruffled, flowered top, instead of scrubs, and that she has braids coiled around her head. She earnestly continues her explanation. “It’s just like a tiny straw–want me to get one to show you?” A couple of minutes later, she reenters our hospital room and rips open a couple of packages that show what the IV looks like. She places a tiny yellow piece upright on her palm. “Now, what do you think that looks like?” she asks. You can tell she thinks the answer…
Unfinished Stories:: Jessica Turner
Since I was a little girl, I have always been told to pay attention to the tone of my voice and how I speak to others. I come from a line of strong-willed women who weren’t afraid to speak – and that fearlessness can be my biggest strength and my biggest weakness. As a mother, I sometimes find that I am too quick to go from zero to ten, the level of my voice escalating louder and more passionate than is necessary. Can anyone else relate to this? My tone and reaction has nothing to do with how much I…
Unfinished Stories :: Everyday Redemption
I am the only woman in the world who will see as closely as I do the young growth of my four sons: the day when one more ounce finally turned the baby 20 pounds, the day when another tied his shoes (on the wrong feet), and the day when another understood the metaphor of bread and wine. I see transforming moments every single day. I watch them in their becomings. Motherhood will never stop teaching me how glory isn’t in a single moment. None of them were born knowing how to keep the front door shut or why it’s…
Unfinished Stories :: If All Goes Well
Image by Jazzbeaunola. Sourced via Flickr. Used with permission. I may be a hopeless romantic but honestly, aren’t we all? “I’m doomed,” my husband says to me, reaching for my hand as we walk across the parking lot. “Doomed?” I ask him. “Yeah,” he says, and sighs. “Doomed.” I know what he means, and I give his hand a little squeeze. Today, it makes me giggle just a bit, but I know someday it will be the source of grief that sits heavy in my heart and leaves me wondering if I can even swing my legs over the side of the bed…
Unfinished Stories Series:: (Joy Bennett)
For the book launch, we are continuing with great writers on the theme of their own unfinished stories. The post below is written by Joy Bennett from Joy in this Journey. __________________ “It is not easy for me to be a Christian, to believe twenty-four hours a day all that I want to believe. I stray, and then my stories pull me back if I listen to them carefully. I have often been asked if my Christianity affects my stories, and surely it is the other way around; my stories affect my Christianity, restore me, shake me by the scruff…
the. (a guest post for extraordinary ordinary)
Thanks so much to all of you who have relayed encouragement about the book and what resonated through your reading. I appreciate the kind words as well as all the help you have provided in helping me spread the world. Here is a guest post I wrote for another blog. ____________________ THE. Ginny & I found out at 30 weeks pregnant that something was seriously wrong. Everything up to that fateful ultrasound had been normal- well, when you’re having your first child you probably stand in no position to define normal. But it seemed that way to us. All of a sudden,…
An Unfinished Story
I ate a salad for lunch. Listen, if you don’t know me, let me tell you why that is weird: I don’t really like salads. But I ate it. It was fine, it wasn’t awesome, but it fed me and I am grateful. I eat salads even when I don’t love them, but I’m not on a diet. I ate a salad for lunch because I want to see the end of this unfinished story. Let me explain. For about eight years-ish, I’ve known I had a disease called PCOS- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome- with a side order of insulin resistance….
It started out innocently enough, a simple browsing trip to Barnes & Noble where my ten year old could also pick up her summer reading journal sheet. Faith, her brothers, and I wind our way through our city towards the bookstore. Even as I intentionally turn on Rangewood instead of Lexington – one street further away…
She kneels by my daughter’s bed. A friendly young woman. I appreciate that she’s dressed in black slacks and a ruffled, flowered top, instead of scrubs, and that she has braids coiled around her head. She earnestly continues her explanation. “It’s just like a tiny straw–want me to get one to show you?” A couple of minutes later, she…
Since I was a little girl, I have always been told to pay attention to the tone of my voice and how I speak to others. I come from a line of strong-willed women who weren’t afraid to speak – and that fearlessness can be my biggest strength and my biggest weakness. As a mother,…
I am the only woman in the world who will see as closely as I do the young growth of my four sons: the day when one more ounce finally turned the baby 20 pounds, the day when another tied his shoes (on the wrong feet), and the day when another understood the metaphor of…
Image by Jazzbeaunola. Sourced via Flickr. Used with permission. I may be a hopeless romantic but honestly, aren’t we all? “I’m doomed,” my husband says to me, reaching for my hand as we walk across the parking lot. “Doomed?” I ask him. “Yeah,” he says, and sighs. “Doomed.” I know what he means, and I give his hand…
For the book launch, we are continuing with great writers on the theme of their own unfinished stories. The post below is written by Joy Bennett from Joy in this Journey. __________________ “It is not easy for me to be a Christian, to believe twenty-four hours a day all that I want to believe. I…
Thanks so much to all of you who have relayed encouragement about the book and what resonated through your reading. I appreciate the kind words as well as all the help you have provided in helping me spread the world. Here is a guest post I wrote for another blog. ____________________ THE. Ginny & I…
I ate a salad for lunch. Listen, if you don’t know me, let me tell you why that is weird: I don’t really like salads. But I ate it. It was fine, it wasn’t awesome, but it fed me and I am grateful. I eat salads even when I don’t love them, but I’m not…