Linda MacKillop's Blog, page 2

A New Madeleine L’Engle Biography

Many years ago during my season as a young mother, I felt a deep longing for older women mentors. If those mentors were writers, all the better. Unfortunately, I didn’t know other wordsmiths at the time and felt isolated by my longing for people who could speak to me about art, faith, and the importance of family.

Fortunately, I one day stumbled upon Madeleine L’Engle’s Crosswicks journals, written from her great farmhouse “of charming confusion” in Connecticut. As the Newbery Award winner of A ...

Required Viewing: “Won’t You be My Neighbor”

Thirty or forty years ago, you never would’ve convinced me I’d be sitting in a movie theater in 2018 weeping about Mister Rogers’ life. But there I was last week, sitting with family, tears flowing down my face while “Won’t you be My Neighbor?” played on the screen. I never really knew this man who was Fred Rogers.

We went to see the documentary after two of my millennial sons raved about the reviews they were reading. I needed to find out for myself—especially after one of my sons told how Mr. ...

My Ditzy Self

I have a ditzy side. I like to think it’s endearing, but maybe it’s just annoying to certain people close to me. In this high-tech world, many opportunities arise for ditzy people like me to make mistakes. Several times I have intended to write a text message to my husband only to discover I have written on a previous thread that included my sons. How was I supposed to know they were listening in?? The potential for embarrassment abounds here. My husband and I were texting about a private decisi...

Confessions of a Suburban Mom – Part Two

In “Confessions of a Suburban Mom – Part One”  I confess to raising our sons in a safe, secure environment, what I perceive as too sheltered of a life, blocking out a broken world. Today’s post picks up where the last post ended. As I ate dinner with a dear friend to discuss her recent trip serving in a dangerous refugee camp in Greece, I brought up my struggle with suburban guilt, telling her I didn’t feel we did enough to introduce the broken world to our sons. She graciously responded, “But w...

Confessions of a Suburban Mom – Part One

While writing my suburban mom confession, I need to confess to writing a long and unwieldy blog post.  Whenever you combine suburban guilt and mother guilt, things get complicated, so I’m making this a two-part post.

 

 This is my confession:  I chose to raise my four sons in the safety of suburban life. I chose to protect them from the troubled experiences of my own youth and from a mean world outside. I knew living in a safe area never guaranteed an absence of danger, but I was going to try my...

A Small, Quiet Christmas

After a beautiful time of togetherness for a wedding in November, my husband and I will experience a very quiet Christmas. None of our family members are able to make the trip here again, and my husband and I are too spent to travel to be with others.

So this year just three of us will gather to celebrate Christmas. We’ve invited others and no one can join us. For someone used to Christmas being “an event” with four active sons and all the traditions we formed over their growing up years, this C...