“Mama?” Silence. “Mama?” I feel her body begin to shift. Her small hands reach out in hope that they will land on my resting body. “Mama?” I slowly turn over and wrap her little body in my arms, hugging her to my chest. Her little fingers wrap around my shirt as I pull her in…
This is the title of one of my favorite songs from the Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway musical Cinderella. In this song, Cinderella muses that she can “be whatever she wants to be.” This fairytale message was one that I loved as a girl, but one that has lost a bit of its promise since I…
In the last couple of years I have written and received too many condolence letters. And I wonder about them, these artifacts of sorrow and grief, inscribed with a litany of words that do not say the things we mean to say, because there really are no words for those feelings, but instead we turn…
I grew up firmly in the grasp of my mother’s extended family. We gathered monthly at the home of her grandmother or an aunt or uncle and the adults visited while the children played. We ate a hearty meal, laughed, told stories, and learned more about ourselves in the learning about each other. If my…
Nyachangkuoth Rambang Tai, also known as Tai, is the cottage president of the South Sudan Cottage. She recently shared how the donations from Big Ocean Women made an important start in lifting and caring for women and their families there. With painstaking care, Tai itemized the purchases made, accounting for all the funds. Can you…
The role of families in our society is more subtle than we realize. When we look at the function of society, we probably focus on the setup of our government, businesses, churches, and so on. But family plays a key part in the function of society: support. Many people would not be where they are…
We generally think of capital as an asset something great to have, definitely desired, valued, and respected. I wonder if we’ve ever stopped to view our family in the same way? Imagine what could happen in our world if we chose to really see each member of our family, the human family, as an asset with the same…
What we know as the definition of the traditional family has largely centered around age and life cycle functions for hundreds of years. Couples are married, bear and raise children, launch them into the world, spend a few golden years together; and then ultimately, their earthly ties are broken by physical death. You can also…
This week we ordered oranges to support our local scouts. We had ordered them a few months ago and they were wonderful. We were surprised this time that most of the oranges were more green than orange. When I shop for oranges, I tend to choose the ones with the deepest orange skin. Out of…
I was sewing a day or two ago, some simple mending that had been ignored for far too long—stitching a torn hem here and mending a button there, settling into the simple act of repairing the wear and tear of catching unexpected corners, and sudden scuffles, and boys wrestling in the living room and the…