Getting real

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Getting real

Getting real

My mom is struggling to survive stage 3 lung cancer. My firstborn will soon deliver her firstborn any day now. Somewhere in between my utter despair regarding the one end of life’s spectrum and my sheer delight related to the other is the space where I, a writer and blogger, should be writing and blogging.

But I don’t feel like…

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Like father, like son... and son... and son

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Like father, like son... and son... and son

"A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you are." ~ anonymous

My son-in-law Preston works out in the mornings before he goes to work. Last week my grandsons joined Dad in doing a few pushups—before school, before even changing out of their pajamas.

The photo Megan shared on social media…

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MS and must-see brain matters

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MS and must-see brain matters

As many of you know, I have multiple sclerosis, having been diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS in 1992. I've done fairly well with the condition over the past 26 years, with the help of progressively stronger drugs along the way. In fact, most strangers—and even some folks I do know in person—have no idea I have MS because, for the most part, it doesn't show. It's one of those "invisible" diseases.

As such things go over the years, though, some of the effects are becoming less invisible. Especially to me. Especially those darn…

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Throwback Thursday: Thoughts on My Daughter's Miscarriage

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Throwback Thursday: Thoughts on My Daughter's Miscarriage

This #TBT piece—originally published October 18, 2015 on Purple Clover—underscores the appreciable blessing of my daughter's recent pregnancy announcement. Thank you for reading.

My daughter lost her baby last week. A miscarriage in the first trimester.

Coming from an abundantly fertile family, it's hard to wrap my head around that. My mom had seven children. Three of my sisters had several children, and a number of those kids had kids. I had three children myself, and my middle child had three children, too.

All of us had no problem. Yet it's a problem for my oldest child, Brianna.

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A plumber's daughter on shootings, guns, and mental illness

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A plumber's daughter on shootings, guns, and mental illness

In the aftermath of the appalling loss of life in Florida on Valentine's Day, social media is once again abuzz with anger, outrage, sadness, stingers, zingers, and some seemingly common-sensical solutions (others very nonsensical and hate-filled) related to gun control, mental illness, and myriad other factors related to yet another WTF situation. 

Once again because nothing changed after the last mass shooting. Or the one before. Or the one before. Or the one before and before and before.

Most of the rhetoric and (justified) rantings seem...

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