When we lived in the south of France during my junior-high years, we had a cherry tree in our small backyard. Our house shared walls with a row of houses on a busy street near the edge of town. My parents had chosen to rent this house for all the space it afforded us: three […]
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My French is rusty. It pains me to admit this, because I have a lot of pride about growing up bilingual as a missionary kid. My family moved from California to France when I was seven. We attended language school for a year, and then I was dropped into French public school for the rest […]
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Maybe you’ve seen it. Maybe you’ve seen it so many times, you have the scene memorized: Buddy the Elf, played by Will Ferrel, is beyond excited that Santa will be coming to the department store. But when Santa arrives and invites a boy onto his lap, Buddy senses that something is amiss. He gets right […]
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When we lived in Texas, a hail storm passed through our neighborhood leaving behind baseball-sized chunks of ice and a lot of damage in its wake. We watched the hail bounce in our backyard from the safety of our house, grateful we had heeded the weather warning and brought our cars into the garage. When […]
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It’s becoming a familiar, but unwelcome feeling: my body in one place and my mind in another. Even as I grow aware of it, I struggle to return my attention to the moment—to be wholeheartedly present. Just last month, I met up with a friend for a walk. After an hour or so, we circled […]
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One day a few months ago, I had blocked out a two-hour chunk of time in which to write. My kids were at school and my husband was at work and the house was quiet and interruption-free. I sat at my writing desk with my notebook and favorite pen and waited for the words to […]
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One of my favorite parts of visiting my husband’s family farm is walking our dog along country roads. Deer scamper through the fields, the crickets sing their chorus, and birds swoop overhead. I’m always amazed when I turn the last corner to complete my loop: a bright bunch of wildflowers marks the spot. Purple, blue, […]
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I’m old enough to remember checking my email in the early days of the internet. I would sit at my parents’ computer and wait about 45 minutes for our dial-up modem to connect (with all of its’ singing beeps.) Then I would eagerly see if there were any messages for me at our Compuserve email […]
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While watching a detective show with my husband, it struck me that in order to condense the story to an hour, they had to leave out a lot of parts. The show’s writers couldn’t include the ordinary, mundane scenes between the action: The police paperwork The commute to work Doing the dishes Walking the dog […]
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Last week, I accompanied my oldest son on a field trip to the middle school. We listened to a short presentation in the auditorium, then took a tour led by student ambassadors. Six different elementary schools feed into this middle school and the building was sized accordingly. We walked up and down stairs, down several […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 