Blog Article, Meditations
Kate Spencer
How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into ...

“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen was right. Well, of course he was. In every life there are challenges that absolutely delight us, and other challenges that absolutely break us. The things that break us are not the challenges of small things. These are the big things of life. From lost jobs to lost friends, broken legs to broken hearts, being born into chaos, and dying all alone, we are both blessed and vulnerable to all that life can take. Every season of our lives is both a beginning and an ending.

How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces
Meditations
Kate Spencer
Rising to the Challenge of the Pandemic Life

We are in the waiting room of the world. We are waiting to go forward to a new normal because going back to the old normal is not an option anymore. Not even close.

We are waiting parent by parent, child by child, teacher by teacher, for a reliable plan for the ongoing, steady presence of schools. And in the absence of a reliable plan, a path to incrementally getting to some reasonable facsimile, day by day.

Rising to the Challenge of the Pandemic Life
Meditations
Kate Spencer
Kick-starting a Deeply Deferred Dream

My grandmother, Mable Hopper, was a mostly stern, serious woman, at least to my 5-year-old self. Small in physical stature, Mable had a big wit, a beautiful singing voice, and a depth of intelligence that did not suffer fools or foolishness gladly. I, being five, was full of foolishness.

Kick-starting a Deeply Deferred Dream
Blog Article
Kate Spencer
A Brother’s Death: COVID-19’s Collateral Damage

There are some sounds you never forget. The sweetness of your toddler’s voice, the off-key perfection of your best friend’s singing, the dependable snore of your snoozing dog.

There are some sounds that are so close to the heart and soul of your life that you never forget them. Sweet, reassuring sounds, like the joy and consolation of your big brother’s laughter.

A Brother’s Death: COVID-19’s Collateral Damage
Meditations
Kate Spencer
First Lessons From COVID-19

When the virus hit the United States, Washington State was brought to its knees. Washington is my home state and I live in the Eastern part of it, the part that by comparison, has been dealt a significantly less lethal blow than our west side neighbors. And still, in some fundamental, essential way, each of our lives across the entire planet have been dealt a lethal blow. Within that devastation may come our salvation.

First Lessons From COVID-19

grief

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How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces

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How to Recover Your Life After It Breaks into Pieces

“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen was right. Well, of course he was. In every life there are challenges that absolutely delight us, and other challenges that absolutely break us. The things that break us are not the challenges of small things. These are the big things of life. From lost jobs to lost friends, broken legs to broken hearts, being born into chaos, and dying all alone, we are both blessed and vulnerable to all that life can take. Every season of our lives is both a beginning and an ending.

Learning Compassion and Passing it On

Learning Compassion and Passing it On

Like a lot of children, I grew up with an alcoholic parent. I was the youngest child of my father’s second marriage. My dad was decades older than my mom. In my father’s maturity, my mother found a sense of safety and stability. In my mother’s youth, my father found a fresh start and a lighter heart. What they saw in each other was genuine. And like many couples, what they saw, revealed, and became to each other changed over the course of their marriage.

For Children Who Were Born Old

For Children Who Were Born Old

I came into the world old. By that, I don’t mean an old, wise soul. I mean a child who was, from the beginning, overly familiar with death. By the time that I, the youngest child of a second marriage was born, my old father was on his way to dying and my young mother was in the deep end of the ocean caring for him.

Seven Ways to Breathe Through a Broken Heart

Seven Ways to Breathe Through a Broken Heart

Some experiences in life will absolutely break your heart. Count on it. It comes with all the beautiful, staggering territory of being mortal. These are not the everyday losses or even things that feel like they break your heart in the moment. For example, when your ten year old insists that they must drink cola out of your great grandmother’s crystal cocktail glass and promptly drops it on the floor right after she says she won’t drop it. Now you have a set of five to pass on to her and a good story, but at the time your heart really hurt. I’m talking about the losses that cause us to question everything we believe in.