Control Relinquished

 Earlier this week our area was blanketed in a thick fog as I drove my daughter to school. Fog is such a weird sensation! It is difficult to see long-distance, but things can suddenly become clear as you get closer. Everything looks shadowy and our eyes take extra effort to focus on what is in front of us. Only the sun or light can bring clarity to our surroundings. I was reminded that much of life can feel like a fog. We cannot see the future or the end result. Many times we find ourselves blindly clamoring through life, seeking direction, and really only having enough faith to put one step in front of the other. Fog can feel frustrating. We so desperately want to see clearly but have no ability of our own to make the fog disappear. However, the light of the "Son's" rays can push that fog out of the way and bring much-needed clarity.  I was also recently struck by this odd sidewalk that I regularly walk on during my daughter's music lesson. My personality tendencies ...

Perhaps some of you were wondering why I vanished from blogging. Quite honestly, the past several months have been survival mode for me. I'm still not sure which is worse: an obvious physical ailment or waiting in unknowns with no clear answers. Back in September, I began experiencing some odd and concerning symptoms but pressed on with life, hoping things would resolve on their own. Over the following weeks and months, each morning I never knew if it would be a "normal" day with little pain or a "rest" day with inflammation and swelling. I bounced from doctor to doctor and from test to test. Life suddenly looked different through a lens of doctor appointments, referrals to hematology/oncology, and hearing scary words like lymphoma and sarcoidosis. There were moments when I was confident that God was by my side in the waiting and the pain and there were others where only tears could express how exhausted and scared I really was.  Last week I had yet another doct...

If any of you happen to live in Pennsylvania woods like me, you may have noticed an influx of acorns. It's almost dangerous to walk in our backyard because I find myself with insecure footing! They are everywhere and I can even hear them dropping throughout the day. With this abundance of acorns, there are plenty of squirrels to watch as well. They are very busy gathering and harvesting the crop for later in the winter. They scurry around, making use of every minute of every day. It's been said that when there is an abundant acorn crop and lots of squirrel activity, we are in for a cold, hard winter. Time will tell if that is true for this winter, but it certainly makes a lot of sense!  As I observed these squirrels harvesting their acorns this week, I felt my thoughts drifting to the spiritual similarities. The past two years of current realities have caused many of us to ask some deep, hard questions. As evil, deception, and confusion seem to prevail, it's easy to feel ho...

 Over the past few weeks, there have been several times I have driven on a road that was recently resurfaced. It has no center or edge lanes painted on it yet. Each time I traveled on this road, I found myself a bit disoriented on where on the road I was supposed to be! Of course, since I've been driving for almost 20 years, I had a pretty good guage on where I should be driving, but it is amazing how those faithful yellow and white lines truly give direction, guidance, and how easily they are taken for granted! It reminded me of our journey through life. If we're not careful to acknowledge the spiritual "guiding lines" in our lives, we can easily get off course and head towards destruction. Jesus needs to be our central guide through these twists and turns of life. If we continue to make decisions without seeking His wisdom, we likely will be setting ourselves up for a head-on collision. Likewise, the edge lines protect us from being sucked off-course and into a ditc...

We are quickly approaching my daughter's one-year "Spineaversary," as it's popularly referred to in the scoliosis community. July 17 will mark one year since her life-altering, major spinal fusion. I've been doing a lot of reflection lately, partly due to the many conversations God has put in my path recently with dear women and mothers going through similar experiences. As I've recalled some of our "God moments" from those dark, raw days, I felt led to share this one special experience that sticks out in my mind.  It was post-op day #4. I had just spent the night at the hospital, while Sheldon slept in our nearby hotel room. I laid there in the early morning darkness, listening to the city road below coming to life with traffic. I quietly texted friends, desperate for prayers and assurance that someday this horrible present would soon be in the distant past. There seemed to be no light at the end of this dark tunnel; would we ever go home?! Would ou...

Last weekend we accomplished our annual task of mulching our flower beds. It's a refreshing sight to have freshly edged and weeded beds get their warm blanket of mulch each spring. My husband and I also recently celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and there is one step to the mulching process he has always insisted we never skip: preen! When we first got married, this was a new concept for me to learn. I had never heard of it or witnessed the delightful miracle of preen. The first couple of years, he would scold me for not putting enough on and sure enough, a couple months later I would need to visit my flower beds and weed. It was a task I quickly despised. Now I have finally learned that, when applied liberally, I can get away with only weeding twice a year! That magical barrier has become a time saver! I couldn't help but think how this can be true in the spiritual realm. If we're not careful, the sinful world will sow seeds of weeds into our hearts and minds. What i...

My husband and I love salmon, so when I recently found it on sale, I couldn't resist buying it. I was anticipating making it in my new air fryer and excitedly told him about my upcoming menu plan. The only hiccup to my plan is the fact our kids do not have the same appreciation for salmon that we do. In fact, yesterday as I prepared our delicious dinner, I was already hearing their complaints in my head. I admit, just the thought of the impending whining took the fun out of dinner preparation. Sure enough, upon their arrival home, their curious eyes caught sight of the asparagus prepped for the oven. Then came the questions of what else are we having?! I casually said, "Salmon and rice." Shrieks of horror ensued. You would have thought I asked them to go catch and filet the fish as well! One child was cautiously optimistic, another was woefully willing, and my third was a basketcase of tears! Even though the meal was delightful to my taste buds, my company was not. When t...