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Oh, hell
My 80-year-old mother and I got in a big argument about hell on Sunday. She’s absolutely certain that I’m going there, and I’m just as certain that I’m not. Here’s my reasoning: One of the most...
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The fear of fear
When I felt fear in the old days, I just felt fear. But since I learned about the law of attraction, which has become mainstream since the movie The Secret came out, things have gotten much more...
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A prayer to Phoebe
Phoebe (August 28,2005-March 15,2011) Dear Phoebe, I have never witnessed greater pain than I did at your funeral on Friday. I felt it in my body. There were times when I could hardly breathe. And...
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Waiting
Every day, the dog lies in the shade of the willow tree, but does not remember why. Does not remember the man who disappeared over the rise in the gravel road, as he’d done so many times before. Does...
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The fortress
The day I walked through the doors of Gifford Grade School at the beginning of third grade, I entered my sixth school. By then, my father’s career in the military had taken my family from: McChord Air...
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The Lighthouse
Men in boats about to capsize, look to my light with longing. Envy my firm footing. Do not know whether they should hold on to their wrecked ships or swim to shore. They assume I’ve always been here,...
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Judgment day
When I was in the fourth grade, my younger brother, sister, and I responded to an altar call at the Bible Baptist church in Rantoul, Illinois. Now, it wasn’t like we weren’t Christians before. Mom had...
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Recovering from emotional bankruptcy
Grief, by Kris Wiltse, for the Mixed Emotions card deck Last Tuesday, while my son was at his father’s over spring break, I broke down. I came home from work, crawled into bed and cried, fell asleep,...
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Soul mates, courage, and happiness
The “Happy” image from the Mixed Emotions card deck (c) 2012 Kris WiltseIf I were blind, how would you explain “yellow” to me? “It looks like the sun feels on your skin,” perhaps. Or, “It looks like...
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Antidotes to chaos
Typically, I blog after having had an epiphany. Today, I am blogging in hopes of reaching one. I am feeling tearful and fragile. Of course, I want that feeling to go away because I don’t like it. But I...
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The fortress
The day I walked through the doors of Gifford Grade School at the beginning of third grade, I entered my sixth school. By then, my father’s career in the military had taken my family from: McChord Air...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Judgment day
When I was in the fourth grade, my younger brother, sister, and I responded to an altar call at the Bible Baptist church in Rantoul, Illinois. Now, it wasn’t like we weren’t Christians before. Mom had...
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On loving, losing, and then loving again
When I was a freshman and sophomore in college, I was a youth group leader at our church. Jill, one of my “kids,” had lost her mother to cancer when she was nine, and like other women at church, I felt...
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The mountains are bigger today
I live on a jewel of an island flanked by two mountain ranges. In the morning, the sun peeks over the Cascade Mountains, igniting the snow on the Olympics in shades of pink. And in the evenings, the...
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Dying Without an Elephant
Toward the end of my brother’s life, he spent every waking hour in a faux-leather armchair by his living room window. He was companioned by the puff-puff-puffing of an oxygen concentrator, a walker...
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