I once read about a mother who tragically lost a child, and every Christmas after hid in bed, leaving her husband and other children to holiday without her. I read this after the loss of our firstborn, and I felt so much empathy for this grieving mother. Traumatic loss can trigger staggering emotions on what …
Category: Suffering
Why Our Longing for Home Never Goes Away
“Are you going home for the holidays?” This is a question I hear from some of the sweet people in our new state. We all long for home. And that sense of home can be elusive, and almost hard to recognize until it’s threatened. My relationship with the concept of home is complicated and full …
Why We Need Both Lament and Joy
Here are two true things: We must learn to be comfortable with both deep lament and deep joy. Recently, I’ve felt wounds healing and grief dimming. There is a day to lament and a day to rejoice, and this week I’m choosing to rejoice. Before I get to joy, a few words on grief. We …
Where to Find Other Articles I’ve Written
Between moving, several trips, and a few bad colds, I’ve neglected to let you know until now that I’ve had several articles published elsewhere. Some of them tackle difficult topics – essential topics, but difficult too. The first is one I wrote for Christianity Today on Empathy. While I share some personal stories, the thrust …
Easter Hope after Dark Days
I was recently talking to a friend facing daunting struggles, and we both shared a blooming hope in our heart for better days ahead. It was a hope that seemed almost irresponsible to hold onto since it wasn’t based on our circumstances. We have both felt the truth of Proverbs 13:12 in the past which …
Experiencing Loss in a World Full of Babies
A common topic for grieving mothers and the infertile is how to handle the joy of others. It’s a tension and a puzzle for both the one with loss and the one with joy. What does grief have to do with joy? And what does joy have to do with grief? These two opposite emotions …
Choosing Joy Despite Loss
We recently decided to sell our house. It was not an easy decision but a necessary one. When I got so sick a couple of months ago, one of the first things we considered was mold exposure. While I have had long-term symptoms from Lyme Disease, they were manageable until two years ago when I …
Hope Flickers
I was sitting at ballet with my girls, ill health and pain overwhelming me, making me unable to even concentrate on the conversation happening between mothers waiting for their girls. I had been experiencing a major, debilitating health decline and had not yet been diagnosed. I huddled in the corner and considered both the gifts …
What Mary Can Teach Us About Joy in a Broken World
Photo by Inbal Malca on Unsplash As Christmas draws near I’ve been thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus, again. Her story has stuck out to me as a beautiful example of joy in a broken world. Her walk of faith has encouraged me that while life is not always easy, there is true hope to be found. …
Art in a Painful World and How it Humanizes Us
Hospitals can be busy places. When I found myself hospitalized for premature labor over ten years ago, I was thankful for the doctors’ and nurses’ efficient care for me. However, sometimes there were certain staff members that treated me more like a medical object than a person, likely because they were hurried and overworked. Somewhere …