My twin sister lost her baby; Friday night: she suffered a late term miscarriage.  I received the gut wrenching, 'something is wrong, I'm hurting" call at about 3:30 a.m. and so I met her at the hospital, where they were expecting her (as I'd called ahead). She was admitted, hooked up to a monitor, and (big sigh of relief) there was a heartbeat. We enjoyed approximately 20 minutes of blissful peace of mind before, lo and behold, her water broke. Ultimately, there IS no recourse after this.…

My mother-in-law has, once again, hopped on the religious roller coaster and has been re-rebaptised. When my husband was very small, she and his father answered god's calling and flew to Haiti to serve as missionaries for several months. My husband can recall forgetting what his parents looked like. Fast forward a couple of years: he can then recall their drunken, happy faces, white lines on dinner plates, and home-made honey bear bongs. Fast forward a few years after THAT: she's armed with…

My earliest memory of church is not a terrible one, necessarily, as there was no physical or sexual abuse, no momentous 'aha!' moment.. no bells and whistles.. nothing worthy of a book writing.. but rather a simple question, on my part, whilst gluing a little paper 'Noah' to a small lunch bag, and the unsavory answer I was given. "Why were there no dinosaurs on the ark?", I'd asked.…

..i'll refine.. this is just a stream of thought that i don't wish to lose.

 I have never believed in "God". Even as a child, I had questions that no one could answer.. and I took fierce offense to things witnessed in small town, bible thumping, holy rolling USA that my young mind couldn't justify and that my heart just couldn't bear..all in the name of the lord or within the unnerving walls of 'his' house.. (this terminology always crept me out too). Still, the odious chore was…