Friends with Secrets

by Christine Gunderson

But no benchmarks of excellence existed in motherhood, and she received no recognition for surpassing or even meeting these invisible standards. God did not reach down from heaven and mark the worthy. Instead, judgment rained down from grandparents, education experts, parenting columnists, in-laws, dentists, and strangers on airplanes. But the harshest judgment came from the endless whisper of self-reproach

His ears were rather prominent, but maybe large ears were like large hands?

How could she expect her husband to accept her past when she couldn’t accept it herself?

“We carved inappropriate messages into stone tablets with a hammer and chisel when I was young because the internet hadn’t been invented yet.”