Posts

Confession

Some sins merely sting. Slight-seeming shortcomings, they inflict but brief burn-- easily soothed with a salve of self-sufficiency. Some sins scald. Singeing beyond skin’s surface, they scorch the self’s very center, stir again the sobering sense of the soul’s insolvency. Both sting and scald leave scars. These marks tell the truest truth: skin and soul flesh and spirit beg for Balm.

Mama Guilt--Not Just for Mamas

If you read about how Mama Guilt loves to offer unending “helpful”observations —even about the inconsequential moments—you may have noticed a few things: First (and as my family jokes when one of us is in an especially talkative mood), she has a LOT of words.    A whole lot.     There’s always more where that came from. Second, her suggestions usually back me into a corner that impossible to escape.  I’m a bad mom if I go in one direction, and I’m also a bad mom if I go in the other direction.  She loves to put me in the damned-if-I-do-damned-if-I-don’t position (and sometimes that feels literal-but more on that later). She also has a knack for pointing out that any difficulty I’m encountering could have been very easily avoided (evidence that I’m not particularly bright), and that the person who should have done the avoiding is me (evidence that I’m not very intentional about my choices). That, of course, necessitates that she move on to reminisce on all those other times