Posts Tagged ‘motherhood unseen’
Supporting Yourself (Or A Friend) Through Miscarriage
Miscarriage may be the most tragic or traumatic loss you have faced thus far. You might feel resentful or depressed; you may be struggling with your faith or in your marriage. You likely do not want to hear anyone else’s opinion on your situation or your grief. But you still have to interact with others…
Read MoreThe Privilege of Friendship
Gathered around the familiar multi-purpose, formica folding tables, I was the youngest of the group by at least ten years. Thursday Bible study had become a treasured time because of the insight, wisdom, and humor that these wiser women shared with me. One day, as a new session began, some younger women invited me to…
Read MoreCount Your Crosses: The Graces of Fortitude and Perseverance
The cold had run its course through our whole family, taking down each man, woman, and child for days at a time, eating up the entire month of March in early 2011. While everyone else recovered, even five-month-old Teddy, Fulton struggled, weak and congested, long past the point when the other four were back to…
Read MoreArm the Children
Arm the children Arm them with a passion for life and each other. Arm them with gorgeous humans who consistently show up. Arm them with some sort of relationship to the Divine. Arm the children with beautiful experiences and honest ones, too. Arm them with gratitude, an ample dose of optimism and hope, the ability…
Read MoreLoneliness, Jesus, and My Mothering Spirit
I fell apart in my kitchen a few nights after another school shooting that left children and teachers dead. My kids were asleep, and I was washing the dishes when my tightly leashed emotions finally broke free. Anger, grief, and hopelessness washed over me and my soapy, shaking hands. The weight of the vocation of…
Read MoreMotherhood is a Prayer Breathed Out
Something I believe. . . Motherhood is Weighty and wonderful, Sometimes monotonous and boring, But also exciting and spontaneous, While being grievous and frustrating. It’s both stretching and structured, Straightforward and confusing, Tiresome and energizing, Painful and healing, Draining and lifegiving, Hopeful and despairing. // It’s playing the long game Though your finish line will…
Read MoreWhen Prayers Go Unanswered
In fall 2021, I was bombarding heaven with prayers for my daughter, who was starting her senior year of high school. She had received a scholarship to play basketball at an elite high school, but she had spent most of her sophomore year sidelined with shin-splints and her junior year sitting on the sidelines with…
Read MoreNothing but Mother
After birth, I am all at once at home and out of place. Every task now a luxury of time. I want to spend all day with the baby, I want to spend all day alone. This month I have done nothing but mother, my body given in service to a tiny human I just…
Read MoreForgiving God Excerpt
This is how I ask the question of suffering now. I used to ask about theories, about how God’s goodness could square with God’s love, how different properties of God made sense in light of suffering. I used to read books about suffering and cry and wonder, in a safely academic way, how these stories…
Read MorePruning My Idea of a Perfect Life
At some point early in our marriage, my husband and I took a shine to the idea of living on a self-sufficient homestead. After poring over books about the Catholic back-to-the-land movement, Catholic Worker farms, and homesteading, we thought we’d found the perfect escape from the normal 9-to-5. We had our plan: purchase a house…
Read MoreEveryday Sacrament Excerpt
This Is My Body, Given for You When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him…Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this…
Read MoreA Blessing for the September Mother
A Blessing for the September Mother: Who doesn’t make enough memories Or lives for the bucket list Who misses the first day of school Or performs acrobatics to get it off work Who holds milestones and grief in the same hand Or relishes in routine Who feels nauseous with anxiety Or notices she can breathe again Who despises making packed…
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