Taryn R. Hutchison's Blog: The Glorious Muddle, page 2

Walking off into the Sunset

RIP Barnabas (Barney) Hutchison, The Encourager I think my cat died two days ago. Let me start over: I know my cat died two days ago. The reason I said “I think” isn’t because I’m stuck in the stage of grief called denial, but because it happened in such a romantic, perfectly scripted movie-ending sort […]

Losing a Little Bit at a Time

  When caregiving consumed my days, I wrote about it frequently, and I wrote about my Dad’s dementia that required caregiving. Many people said that helped them. Things have eased up quite a bit for me now that I’m only responsible for one parent, but it’s still a difficult season. Small losses keep coming. Some […]

Silent Night or Jingle Bells?

This year, I debated whether I should decorate. Should we go through all the effort–arthritic knees and sore backs effort–to haul our Christmas decorations down from the attic and put them up? The only people I knew for sure who’d see them were my husband and me, and my mother on Christmas day. But even […]

Early Life of a Newborn Book

The month of October is a blur to me. My third book, Sentenced to Life, was due on October 19 and arrived two weeks early: on October 5. Like any parent of a premature baby, I wasn’t quite prepared. I’ve been playing at catch-up ever since, without catching up exactly. Maybe in a couple years […]

Coming Soon to the World

Funds are raised. Cover: designed. Editing: complete. Formatting: almost finished. Head: spinning. Three weeks remain until the birth of Sentenced to Life.   After surviving two of the hardest years of my life as a caregiver to both parents, summer’s slower pace was a healing balm to my soul. It’s not that I did nothing; […]

The Hardest Story to Write

More than two years ago, the guy in this photo asked me to write his memoir. I couldn’t say no. My husband and I had prayed for him for over a decade. Besides, he had an amazing story to tell. This guy, our friend Curtis Roberts, had just been released from San Quentin State Prison.  […]

Marking Grief by Remembering

Special anniversaries after a death are important times. We mark the significance by remembering. This week I remembered. One year ago, we put my dad in his memory care home. Six months ago, he left that home for his eternal one.

Why Care about Another Disease?

Every month, we’re asked to don ribbons in colors of pink, red, green, blue, or yellow to bring awareness to a different and deadly disease. This past month, the color has been purple and the disease has been Alzheimer’s**. How can you possibly care about one more disease? It’s only natural to choose the disease […]

The Month with the Most Light

The longest day of the year–the official start of summer–occurs on June 21 this year. To me, this day is no longer Summer Solstice. Forever more, it will be the day to fight Alzheimer’s. In fact, the whole month of June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month and purple is the color to wear. “The […]

Why We All Need a Break

My much-needed summer break from my university tutoring gig starts soon, and I definitely need it. You may not have a job where you get the summer off, but hopefully, summer will still bring a more relaxed change of pace. Longer days. Vacations. More time outside to play. We all need to take breaks. When […]