Healing in the Desert

Healing in the Desert

I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams…” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince Noel got three days of bereavement leave when his mom passed and we knew that we needed to use some of that time to decompress before heading back to regular life. Fortunately, Glenna’s funeral services were in close proximity to one of our favorite healing balms: red rock canyons. The day after…

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Glenna’s Funeral

Glenna’s Funeral

“I’ve come to understand that there’s a good deal of value in the ritual accompanying death. It’s hard to say good- bye and almost impossible to accomplish this alone and ritual is the railing we hold to, all of us together, that keeps us upright and connected until the worst is past.” – William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace I’ll admit my attitudes on the celebrations surrounding death used to be a bit callous. When I talked about my wishes for my…

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NueroTribes

NueroTribes

It’s Autism awareness month and yesterday was world Autism awareness day. Usually I’d be lighting it up blue and doing my annual post on how the past year has gone raising a kid on the spectrum (See my posts from 2014, 2015, 2016), but lately I just haven’t been feeling super passionate about much of anything.  Still, autism is near and dear to my heart. I just started reading the book NueroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Nuerodiversity. Noel discovered it from…

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How is Your Heart?

How is Your Heart?

“Be kind because everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Ian MacLaren In the days leading up to Glenna’s transfer to inpatient hospice our kitchen sink backed up. The threads on the clean out in the basement were stripped making it impossible to open it and clear the pipe. This of course meant a trip to the home improvement store to acquire fun things like a reciprocating saw blade that can cut through cast iron. (For the record,…

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And Then Comes Peace

And Then Comes Peace

“Death is the enemy. But the enemy has superior forces. Eventually, it wins. And in a war that you cannot win, you don’t want a general who fights to the point of total annihilation. You don’t want Custer. You want Robert E. Lee, someone who knows how to fight for territory that can be won and how to surrender it when it can’t, someone who understands that the damage is greatest if all you do is battle to the bitter…

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10th Anniversary

10th Anniversary

We’ve been thinking about our 10th anniversary since our 9th. We wanted to do something big and had narrowed it down to either a trip to Costa Rica or river guide school. When Glenna got diagnosed and came to live with us, planning became infinitely more difficult. (Maybe we should have known Costa Rica was bad luck, that was also the plan for our 5th anniversary and that didn’t turn out either.) Even if we’d logistically worked something out with family…

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On Miracles

On Miracles

“And whether you believe in miracles or not, I can guarantee that you will experience one. It may not be the miracle you’ve prayed for. God probably won’t undo what’s been done. The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day.” ― William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace The lung center clinic Glenna went to is world-renown. Her oncologist is involved in cutting edge research on lung cancer. He…

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A Rough Landing

A Rough Landing

Noel describes the day he and his mom flew to Colorado as one of the worst days of his life. For most of it, I was generally unaware of how traumatizing it was. The evening their flight departed* they sent optimistic texts to the family – pictures of them next to a moose statue at the Anchorage airport and reassurances that they were feeling calm.  That night I wrote in my journal in anticipation of their arrival, “Buckle your seatbelt…

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10 years

10 years

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin “There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.” – Martin Luther The good, the bad, and the bleh – it’s been 10 years full of adventures. I’m glad we’ve had each other through it all. There’s something about a decade that feels solid, which is exactly what our marriage is.

The Backstory

The Backstory

Before I jump into any reflective posts I think I need to set up the backstory. In true Audrey fashion, I’ve been concise, maybe too concise about everything that has transpired. It was the Saturday of our church’s fall General Conference when we found out Glenna (Noel’s mom) had lung cancer. She called Noel in between sessions of talks intended to uplift us and told him she’d gone to the ER earlier in the week because of severe neck pain….

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