The Death of Malaise

Malaise, n. a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness,lethargy, or discomfort. If I remember correctly, my younger sister once had a gerbil which she named "Malaise." It would have been somewhere around junior-high time for her, and she acquired the gerbil during a period of, well... malaise.  If I remember correctly, our cat dragged that gerbil backward out of the cage by its tail … Continue reading The Death of Malaise

His Worst Week, His Best Week. Same Week.

Life has its ups and downs---true for all of us. But magnify those altitude-adjustments by whatever mysterious hormonal algorithm determines teenage moods, and we're talking about emotional topography to rival Idaho's Sawtooth mountains. Having said that, though, teenagers' experience of life isn't any less real for the fact that they're hormonal or young. And sometimes … Continue reading His Worst Week, His Best Week. Same Week.

…and Morning

Still reading Lamott, and here's her next gift to me: And this is God's own truth: the more often I cried in my room in Ixtapa and felt just generally wretched, the more often I started to have occasional moments of utter joy, of feeling aware of each moment shining for its own momentous sake. … Continue reading …and Morning

Nightmare

A blogging-friend commented the other day that my writing reminds her of another writer's, and (with that sense of shame peculiar to a bibliophile when she discovers there's something she hasn't read) I immediately downloaded Anne LaMott's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. The action of downloading the book brought home to me, actually, how … Continue reading Nightmare