Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Yesterday I celebrated my 40th birthday.  One of the cool things about turning 40 is that I can now multiply my kids' ages by each other and it equals me.  It will only last for another 20 days or, and then one will be nine.  I wonder--will such an equation happen again?  There's an algebra problem for you. But, since I am not the sum of my children, or neither am I the product of my children, (though they are the product of, well, anyway) . . .I have thought about some other things recently. We have so much.  We had a big cake in celebration and there is lots left over.  We had lots of bottles of wine and sparkling water in the fridge and there are lots left over.  We run the tap to get the water warm and it just goes down the drain.  So much water, and it is all clean.  I am grateful for the sun that shines on us and the rain that poured on us today.  I'm grateful for the time to play and relax, to be busy and learn.  I'm gr...

Our hearts have been stretched, we recently found out, but it happened slowly.   Poverty, food shortage, contaminated water, starvation--these words bring images to my mind of children with bulging bellies and scarred skin.  They were problems a million miles away that I thought could do nothing about, so I put up a mental wall of protection.  If I saw pictures or heard pleas for help, I would ignore them, thinking it was too big of a problem for me to deal with, or I justified my inaction with the idea that the funds were most likely not going to get to those who needed the help, and even if they did, it would be a drop in a bucket.  I had heard for years about “sponsoring a child” from Africa or India or the like.  It never moved me. When I was 33 and our daughter was almost two years old, I suffered a miscarriage of twins.  At the time it was the most devastating event of my life.  My husband and I mourned their loss and couldn’t help bu...