Michelle DeRusha's Blog, page 4
April 17, 2019
How to Build a Bigger Table
I called Angel on a Wednesday morning for a “human interest” article I’d been assigned for my job at The Salvation Army. I had very little information about him, aside from the fact that he and his wife host community dinners every few months for residents in their apartment complex.
I was skeptical. It didn’t sound like much of a story.
Angel answered on the second ring, and when I told him why I was calling, he eagerly began to talk. I pressed my cell phone to my ear and frantically scribb...
April 5, 2019
Filled with the Fullness of Your Own Everyday, Ordinary Life
A few days ago, as Josie lingered with her snout deep in the weeds – “reading the newspaper,” as a fellow dog-walker once observed – I watched a girl on roller skates sidestep, arms outstretched, down a grassy slope. She wore old-fashioned skates, the kind with four wheels and a rubber stopper like a nose on the end of each boot. Suddenly I was back under a rainbow of disco lights at Interskate 91, Beat It pulsing, skates thumping over the hardwood floor.
Nearby a young man had slung a strip...
March 20, 2019
When a Natural Disaster Gets Personal
Last Friday I drove home from work under a wide blue sky. Squinting against the early evening sun, I lowered the visor and sat ramrod straight in the driver’s seat, trying futilely to align my eyes with the narrow band of shade.
Earlier it had rained long and hard. My husband had called to report that he’d wrestled with the downspouts and gutters in the deluge all morning, attempting to redirect the water that would inevitably weep down the cinder-block walls of our basement.
Meanwhile, at Th...
March 13, 2019
Fasting Makes Space for God
When I was a kid it was my family’s tradition to give up something for Lent. This 40-day sacrifice, I learned in my weekly catechism class, was a gesture intended to emulate the 40-day fast Jesus endured and the temptations he overcame during his time in the wilderness.
I had complicated feelings about this Lenten practice of giving something up. On one hand, the overachiever in me eagerly embraced the challenge, optimistic at the start of each Lent that this would surely be the year I triump...
February 20, 2019
The Value of Doing Your Work Well…Even When It Goes Unnoticed
Last June on our family vacation to Maui, I started my days on the balcony. Each morning before the boys awoke, I slipped into one of the plush hotel robes that hung in the closet, poured a cup of coffee, slid open the glass door and settled into a patio chair, my bare feet propped on the metal railing still damp with dew. I listened to the exotic cackles and calls of unfamiliar tropical birds, luxuriated in the humid breeze on my face and let myself awaken.
I loved observing the early mornin...
February 13, 2019
Why Small Talk {even about the weather} Is More Important Than You Might Think
Recently I was reviewing the daily listings I had recorded in my gratitude journal during January, and I noticed something I didn’t expect to see. Nearly every day my list of three or four “gratitudes” included at least one interaction with another person:
Catching up with Summer over coffee.
Stopping on the bike path to pet Kona and chat with Mary Jo.
A friendly conversation with the Hobby Lobby cashier.
Laughing with friends at Trivia Night.
Reconnecting with Kelli.
Chatting about the col...
January 30, 2019
Why You Don’t Have to Grasp for God
The wind is gusting hard this morning. Tree branches clash and clink, coated in ice; twigs screech across the sunroom window like fingernails on a chalkboard. From my desk I watch the sparrows spilling seed at the feeder, the dark-eyed Juncos pecking at the dirty snow. High up on the trunk of the river birch tree, a strip of papery bark waves in the breeze like a prayer flag.
“So now what?” my counselor asked me in our session last week. “What do you want to do now that the book is out and y...
January 23, 2019
How to Replace a Bad Habit with a Better One
“You complain all the time,” she said, turning around from the passenger seat to look me in the eye as I sat squashed between our two sons. “You are relentlessly negative.”
Only a sister could make such a declaration and live to tell about it.
My first reaction was defensiveness. “I am not relentlessly negative,” I shot back, emphatically shaking my head. “And I definitely do not complain all the time.”
My sister didn’t press the issue. She simply looked at me a beat too long, eyebrows raise...
January 16, 2019
How Counseling Can Help You Find Wholeness
Late last summer I finally admitted to myself that I’d been struggling with low-level depression and discontent for a while, and so, I made the call I’d dreaded making. Honestly, I didn’t want to make an appointment with my counselor because I didn’t want to do the hard work I knew would be inevitable. I didn’t want to dig deep into past hurts, unpack my baggage, sort through the messy detritus of my life.
I’m glad I made the call. Though I was right — it has been hard to sit on the sofa and...
January 9, 2019
Favorite Books of 2018
Now that I’m catching my breath from the release of True You, I can get back to regular programming around here. And the first order of business for the new year is always a favorite books post. In 2018 I read 58 books (not counting a handful I didn’t finish), compared to 44 in 2017 – an increase of 14 additional books. More books is always better in my opinion!
My favorites of 2018 weren’t necessarily books published in 2018; some of my picks have been around quite a while in fact.
Without...
