Categories
life

“if not in this life,

then in heaven.” This is how my Grandma Slenk would end her conversations with people with whom she did not have the chance to visit very often. Cousins in the Netherlands, people she ran into from a bygone era of her life, folks who came to visit her in assisted living. She said it rather cheerily, as she said most things, and found it not at all morbid.

My grandma was the type of woman who threw her head back and laughed. A lot. If you know my mother, you’ll see that this is a delightfully inherited trait. Grandma didn’t understand why people who shared her age would ever wish to die. She relished every minute on earth. And yet, this strange phrase was her standard farewell.

Yesterday I used my grandma’s farewell for the first time. It was to an old elementary school and high school classmate whom I rarely see, but whose shared disease has brought us back into one another’s lives. She died yesterday, and I’m not sure anyone even read my farewell to her before she took her last breath, but in writing it I finally understood how my grandma, who loved life so much, could say it.

Living with one foot in glory is OK. In fact, living with one foot in glory may make us much more able to throw our heads back and laugh when the laughing time comes again.

But for today I’m remembering my friend from a bygone era. Who entered glory far too early.

Categories
life

my next appointment

I actually had to call the cancer center yesterday to find out when my appointment is in January. For anyone keeping track, it’s Monday, January 8. This will mean my normal routine of getting a chest x-ray on Thursday and picking up the films on Sunday. It also means that either I will allow myself to obsess over it during Christmas, or I will put it out of my mind and allow it to wait for the new year. Or moments of each.

I like to think that I didn’t know when my appointment was because I am taking life one day at a time and not looking anxiously around the corner. And I wallow in this grace that God has given me.

But there is a little part of me that realizes–like when I triple scheduled myself for 3rd hour yesterday–that I really have become quite a flake. So, maybe I’m just an airhead who can’t manage her calendar.

Either way, ignorance does seem to be bliss.

Categories
life

ballet

There is nothing more achingly sweet than a girl in pink tights and a leotard.
Zoe ballet twoZoe ballet classZoe by mirror

Zoe takes ballet in the same building I went to Kindergarten in. I like to think she dances in the same room in which Mrs. Beamers sang “Oats Peas Beans and Barley Grow” with my adoring class.

Categories
life

miss us?

Perhaps you’ve noticed that our blog has been stagnant for a while. Mark has completely overhauled our look, while I’m trying to come up with blogworthy material. Of course, now that the blog is ready, my mind is blank, but playing with the site a bit seems easy enough.

For starters, here’s a photo that I took at book club on Friday night. It was one of the rare occasions when all of us could make it. It was also one of the not-so-rare occasions that we didn’t discuss a book. Hey, we’re workin’ on it!

try

Categories
life

test

I’m new to the blogosphere, relatively. Just seeing how this site works.

rabbit

a portrait of rabbit by the person who loves him best.

Categories
life

hold on while i just… get this… thing… here

new blog under construction – please bear with us!

zoe.jpg