The Book of Revelation – and some Curry Soup.

My family growing up had a tradition on Christmas Eve of making my mom’s Curry Soup – which is really just a concoction of two specific canned soups juzzzzed up a bit with curry powder.  I still incorporate the soup into my own Christmas Eve ritual.   What makes the soup so magical is the […]

My Jack-o-Lantern and Your “thing.”

My sweet mom has an artist’s heart and one thing she loved to do in the mid 70s of my youth was paint ceramics.  It was a thing back then to go to a ceramics store and get a piece of molded, but not yet fired and glazed, pottery.  You would take the pottery home […]

Diet Coke and emotional caffeine.

I love Diet Coke.  There, I said it. I know it’s not a particularly healthy thing to ‘love’ in this “we-know-better-so-we-should-do-better” day and age.  I get it.  And, in my defense, I drink A LOT of water, as well.  I promise.  I know a lot of you can relate.  Caffeine, in some form or another, […]

Broken yolks and de-escalative laughter.

This morning I asked Darren to flip my fried eggs for me because 1) I wanted my yolks to remain intact, 2) I was too scared I would break them, and 3) he is notoriously much, much better than me at anything having to do with the stove.  (The oven I have mastered – but […]

“A fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”

Jon J. Muth tells the story of “two traveling monks who reached a town where there was a young woman waiting to step out of her sedan chair [a portable covered chair that is designed to hold one person and is carried on poles by two people]. The rains had made deep puddles and she […]

57 degrees and Sunshine.

I live west of the Wasatch Mountains (a range on the western border of the Rockies) in a ski resort-filled area of the Western United States. We usually see an average of 4.0 months of ‘snow’ – typically from November 12 through March 12 – and in those 4 months about half the days are […]

Comfort, Ability, and a bit of Happiness.

I’m writing this from a desk in a room on the 40th floor of a 5-star hotel. It is one of my favorite places to work and write.  I have been here so many times now that it feels like home away from home.  My home away from home.  I’ve been thinking a lot about […]

Seasons and a great big table.

When I moved into my first real stand-alone single-family on-it’s-own-lot house several years ago, I had so many decisions to make.  So many.  Thankfully, I knew exactly what I wanted in the kitchen – a great big table that could fit many, many people.  My youngest brother volunteered to build me an 8’ by 4’ […]

Fear. And a really great purse.

One of the things that the people in my life – and probably the 12 of you reading this – used to tease me about is my purse.   My particular brand of OCD + my Enneagram 6 phobic personality =  an INORDINATE amount of time spent thinking about my purse.  Condition #1 – It […]

The Greatest Showman and a wobbly table.

I hate getting my car serviced.  Hate it.  Hate going to the shop.  Hate waiting.  Hate talking to the service person.  Hate finding out how much I owe.  Hate worrying about if they really put the tires back on my car correctly.  Hate wondering if the wheels will fall off while I’m driving home.  You […]