A fellow young mother hurried over to me after church — we’d been comparing notes on our nighttime sleep successes (and failures) with our babies, who were only a few weeks apart. “We put her in the Merlin Magic Suit last night and she slept for nine hours straight!” she exclaimed. I feigned celebration while internally seething with jealousy. While this well-rested new mom shared her news, I held onto my fussy two-month-old who had woken up several times in the night. I had been trying for a few weeks to get her to sleep longer stretches at night, with mixed success, but we were coming off of a few nights in a row of several middle-of-the-night interruptions. I was tired, grumpy, and at this point, I was desperate for a full night’s sleep. I wanted to buy that magic suit.
Read MoreI love to host friends. I love when people drop by unexpectedly. I don’t, however, always love being the one in need. But when I was the one knocking on the door, I found that my neediness actually opened more doors into my neighbor’s life. Doors aren’t meant to always be locked shut. If you knock on them, you might be surprised to find that they open too.
Read MoreEvery new year is filled with hopeless optimism that I can truly change. At the beginning of this year, I took time to look back and reflect on all the ways that my life is different than it was just 365 days ago. I moved to a new state, I got a new job, I got engaged. Life has changed in some sizable ways, and yet I find myself wondering: did I really change at all?
Read MoreI stared at the boxes lining the walls of my garage, stacked up to the ceiling. They had been gathering cobwebs for months. Almost a year earlier, I had stashed all of the unsold CampKit boxes in a storage unit, but a few remained stacked in my garage, a daily reminder of what a wonderful dream it was—and how I had failed.
Read MoreI recently saw the Oscar-nominated film Minari, in which a Korean-American family settles in the farmlands of Arkansas, led by patriarch Jacob. Fueled by tenacious hope and the American dream, Jacob desires to have a thriving farm, to provide for his family, and ultimately to prove his worth - to himself, his family, and the world.
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