Marilyn R. Gardner's Blog, page 60
May 6, 2016
Brene Brown Would Have Been Proud
Chloe stood straight and as tall as her 4 foot 11 inch frame would allow for in her black floor length dress. Her ginger colored hair was pulled back into two tight buns on either side of her head. She had deliberate bangs that framed her face. Red circle rimmed glasses balanced on her nose. [...]
May 5, 2016
On Making Recent History
I leave my Cambridge apartment mid-morning on a Friday. Usually I would be walking, but I am going to a store that is too far so I pull out of my driveway in our small, city car. The first person I see is our neighbor, Christopher. I wave and he waves back, a smile on [...]
May 3, 2016
“I Knew Flags, I didn’t Know Allegiance”
Last month, I found my son Micah’s college essay. I was sorting through some papers in a desperate attempt to find a medical document. As often happens when you begin sorting, you find papers and letters from long ago and you end up lost in a past time and place. Micah’s essay focused on our [...]
April 30, 2016
Pre-Paschal Reflections
It is ten pm on Saturday night. I sit on the couch in a darkened room. White lights peak through the window from the outside. We are the rare family that keeps Christmas lights up all year long, for who doesn’t need more light in their life? All day there has been a sense of [...]
April 28, 2016
To You Whom I’ve Never Met
Last week, my husband came home with a package. After tearing off the brown paper, I opened a beautiful, decorative, handmade sign for our home. Someone who I’ve never met, who has never seen my world, took the time to make it for me. I couldn’t believe her kindness and generosity. And so I began [...]
April 26, 2016
With Hearts Outside our Bodies
A few years ago, a good friend and I were talking about our children. How we loved them, how we were exasperated by them, how we struggled to parent well, mostly how we hurt when they hurt. She talked about a quote she had read somewhere, that when we have children we wear our hearts [...]
April 22, 2016
A Fit Bit (On belonging; Not on Electronic Step Tracking!)
One day, on our recent working trip to Spain, we were sitting around after an intense day. Lowell and I had been teaching a small-assorted group on leadership for a week. The day was over. The week was over. Several of us were sitting outside the villa breathing in the evening air, soaking up the [...]
April 21, 2016
Ready to Face the Day
It’s early morning in Cambridge. Light is beginning to creep into the living room where I sit, coffee beside me and Bible on my lap. Outside the window, spring hesitantly makes herself known. Like a small child performing, she is first shy but with each passing moment she becomes more confident, finally bursting out with [...]
April 19, 2016
Beware: the Language of Heaven is Hell for the Passenger
While living in the Middle East, we would often quote Islamic scholarsand proclaim that we were“learning the language that we’ll …
“She Shouldn’t Have Worn White” a Repost
“My mom says she shouldn’t have worn white”. I looked at my friend perplexed. I was 16 and had never …
