Twenty years later, I still cringe at the memory. Oh, let’s call a spade a spade: it’s memories. I was then as I am now, a hopeless romantic. Only as a sixteen-year-old who’s lived a blessedly sheltered life, I was perhaps a little less prepared for a little thing called “reality.” (If, by “little,” you…
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Persecution Complex
I have this persecution complex. It dates back to the days when I was engaged to an atheist and I knew I had no business being so. But despite the nudges from my conscience, I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) break it off. Ever since then, any time I’ve been involved with something I love, I get…
Read MoreFirst Grade Sex Ed
I learned more about my son’s first grade class in ten minutes on the highway than I’ve learned all year at the dinner table. We were returning from picking up a friend for an overnight. As my crowded van sped down the highway, the boys started discussing school. “Do you remember (X) doing his freak-out…
Read MoreWhat Luke Skywalker Taught Me About Motherhood
It was one of those days.To wit: Michael would not consent to be laid down…all day. Imagine. Every time I tried to make lunch, use the bathroom, or aid another child in a self-care task, I had to endure heartbreaking wails. Nicholas kept whimpering pathetically, “I want you, Mommy!” (translated: I want to sit on your…
Read MoreWhen Prayer Feels Empty
I seem to be collecting a lot of prayer intentions lately. Not that there’s anything strange about that–it’s just that for some reason, recently they seem to be hitting a lot closer to home. In times past, I used to promise to pray and then forget all about it. (Yes, I was one of those…
Read MoreMentor
She was young and pretty and sweet, and from the first day she stood up in front of my sixth grade class, I adored her. I was at the height of my awkward stage, my self-esteem slipping on the shifting sands of hormones and changing social requirements. I didn’t fit in with my peers, whose…
Read MoreThe Importance of Saying “No” (a practices of mothering post)
Click here for Part 1 Click here for Part 2 There’s a Gospel passage in which Jesus says no man gives his child a snake when they ask for a fish. It’s built in to our love for our children, this desire to fulfill their needs…and their wants. Whatever they ask for–the newest toy or…
Read MoreWhen What You Need, You Can’t Have
This weekend, I read the most beautiful description of a place, a description that picked up my heart and plopped it down in the Sierra Nevada, and my whole body ached to hop a plane and follow it there. There hasn’t been much time for solitude and communing with God through creation in the last…I…
Read MoreIn The Background
There are too many pictures on my computer. Digital photography has absolved us from wasted money and resources. So now we’re profligate with our picture-taking, knowing we can delete whatever isn’t worth keeping. Except we don’t. At least, I don’t. I can’t bear to part with them. For instance: Last night I set out to…
Read MoreDrive-Through Wisdom
We were gone all day yesterday, and pretty much all day Saturday. And all day Thursday. And last night, Michael developed a stubborn stuffed up nose that meant I went to bed at 11, got up at 12:20, 2:15, 4:20, 5:35, 6:20 and 7:30. My gift to myself today is scrapbooking, and a repost on…
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Kathleen M. Basi 