healing

  • Promises for 2022

    “What are your dreams for 2022?” My husband asked as we drifted off to sleep. The clock struck midnight ushering in the new year… “Mama, what if I die?” Sitting on the corner of his bed, I rub his back…

  • I’ve Been Gifted Today

    I woke up this morning, foggy with sleep but keenly aware that today was October 25th. I whispered in the darkness “thank you for today”. I won’t miss a minute of gratitude today: My husband singing around the house while…

  • When Darkness Threatens, Look for Fireflies

    “Turn on the light!” He bellows in a rage from his bedroom. There is a tremor in his voice. I know rage that sounds so angry stems from fear, a fear I’ve yet been able to teach him to move…

  • Who Told You That?

    “Who told you that?” He placed his hands squarely on her shoulders and turned her around to face him.  “Who told you that?” He repeated just as emphatically but a little quieter and gentler the second time. She stood, staring…

  • Love says, “It hurts. Open your hand.”

    Yesterday she stood over an open casket laced with flowers. The internal tidal wave of emotion barely constrained by the dam of social pressure and personal expectation. This was goodbye. There were no more relational choices to be made, no…

  • When Your Life Story Doesn’t Pack Up Neatly

    The candles flickered on the coffee table in the evening light, their subtle ways bringing a warmth to the quiet living room. Familiar scents of  cotton and laundry  filled the air. Nearly 4 decades of favourites filled her ears with…

  • Coming Home

    I stumbled, cross eyed out of the bedroom to find Chad and his brother Doug sitting at the kitchen table brewing a cup of tea. It might have been 8 o’clock but it was Christmas week and it’s hard enough…

  • Like a Superhero, She Fell

    Unlike this dark and rainy day, the sun shone with promise, and a fresh crisp bite was found in the air as she climbed the ladder that would set her on a path she didn’t anticipate, one not welcomed nor…

  • Pregnant with grief, God birthed mercy and compassion

    As we celebrate Nathaniel’s 4th birthday this week my mind and heart have gone back to his pregnancy and birth again and again. In January 2011 I had returned to Haïti for the first time after experience the earthquake in…