The recorder was lying on the table between us, like a spinner on some game that landed on him instead of me. It was pointing at Rickey, the man tied to an oxygen tank and an hour glass counting down the days until eviction. That was 2 weeks ago. Eviction is scheduled for tomorrow. I […]
The saying goes, If nothing changes, nothing changes. But experience has taught me that even if everything changes, if we don’t change with it, we’re no better off. I thought when my husband got a better job, I would be better at saving money since we were used to living on less income. I thought […]
There’s this saying: I cried that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet. Easter weekend I found myself handing drinks and dessert out of a food truck to homeless people. It’s what my brother does, and he’d invited me and our mother into that space. Like the time Jesus […]
Our daughter jumped up to tap the Happy Birthday banner hanging in the doorway, not expecting to reach it. But when her hand smacked a T, the plastic letters clapped and shimmied, sending a smile across her face like a sudden sunrise. She danced and squealed, I grew! I finally grew! She’d been growing all […]
For no apparent reason, Etta Rose looked up from her toys and said, God has a plan! Before I could respond, Selah called out, And we are always living it! And then Heaven slammed shut again, as if nothing had just happened. I think it’s partly true, but that’s how the week started, one that’s […]
It had rained for 40 days and 40 nights during holiday vacation, so I was pretty sure our girls were ready to get some air. We call it going to town. After cleaning the house, I’d planned to take them to town and let them spend their Christmas money. Their daddy smiled into the phone […]
I knew she would ask. We talked about how laughter rescues, how we miss Papa Joe’s warm laugh. Surely he hears us, we agreed. She was about to ask, I could tell. I swallowed hard, my throat tightening because she’s alone in that nursing home. And because she hurts all the time. Because she still […]
I thought I’d be put to sleep when I arrived to have the heart-shaped box removed from my chest. I’d wrapped my mind all around what to expect and looked forward to waking when it was over. But as things progressed, I realized—as it was happening—I was going to be awake for the whole procedure. […]
My fellow first-graders and I were ritualistically threatened to be sent to Mr. Williams. He was the red-eyed high school principal rumored to spank children with his electric paddle. Our teacher would march us in a line up the pea-gravel hill, believing we were about to be electrocuted, only to stop halfway and give us […]
I was a witness, taking heart notes as Daddy fought all night to save the calf. We’d just come home late from a Broadway play. It was about a lion cub that was so overcome with guilt, he forgot who he was and how much his family needed him. So on his knees, still wearing […]