-
Flying Underwear: A Lesson in Respect
In 36 years of marriage, I can count on one hand the number of fights my husband and I have had. Yet, two of those were sparked by my attempts to organize him. Early in our marriage, the clutter of papers scattered around our small living spaces began to irk me. I’m not Mrs. Fastidious, but the mess bugged me. Bobby, my husband, didn’t have an office back then and often worked from a corner of our living room. We disagreed over the value of form versus function—he saw empty flat surfaces as storage spaces, while I envisioned them adorned sparingly with pretty decor. To give you a bit more…
-
The Unforced Rhythms of Grace
If you’re following along, you might know about Sacred Saturdays. They evolved from my husband’s and my need to hold time aside just for us. The time that has worked best is Saturday mornings. The name came later as we realized just what this time means to us and what it has contributed to our relationship. “Sacred” in the name does not mean that we do something specifically related to God every time, although we sometimes do. It means that this time is a priority and it’s special. I explain how it came about and what we do on these mornings in the original story. We’ve been doing Sacred Saturdays…
-
Racing and Life: The Wall’s Teachings
Drag racing is dangerous. My husband, Bobby, is a professional funny car driver. Over the years, I’ve seen many racecars crash. As much as I love this sport, it can tear your heart out to lose beloved friends to it. The two most common safety issues in our sport are cars catching fire and cars hitting the wall. Often, these incidents occur simultaneously. Bobby has been on fire three times. I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more just to…never see that again. OK, if you didn’t get that joke, you’re too young. Or I’m too old. Haha! Jokes aside, it’s horrifying to watch the most precious…
-
Sustain a Marriage With Forgiveness
I read an article recently called “Why We Need Moments of Mad Thinking.” In it, the author contends, “We banish a great many thoughts from our minds on the grounds that they are, as we put it, ‘mad’. Some of them evidently are: too mean, flawed, absurd or petty to deserve further exploration. But it’s one of the tragedies of our thinking lives that, amidst the detritus of dismissed thoughts, there are invariably a great many that could have been of high value, if only we had dared to examine them further, if only we hadn’t been so scared of their less conventional and more speculative dimensions, if only we…
