a scribble of jo

where to?

Tag: hope

  • counting minutes

    The year started in a place I didn’t expect: New York. As the hours winded down to the last midnight of 2013, all I could think about was being somewhere else, figuratively. Literally. I was supposed to be at the beach in Ecuador with my sisters’ husbands’ family. I was supposed to be drinking a…

  • the grace to give thanks

    Maybe it is the holidays closing in upon us that makes me weary, or perhaps it is the 24/7 life that calls to keep on keeping on–either way, I look out my backyard window and ask, “How much longer, Lord?” I don’t think I even fully understand what it is that I await. I just…

  • the necessity

    Sometimes I hate the necessity of what hurts us. I dislike the fact that I care too deeply or that I’m moved too easily by what others consider the little things. Last night I talked to a student of mine and she said she gets over things quickly because she knows it’s just  a mind…

  • the first of one thousand gifts

    It was a rough day. I walk into my first class (third period) and the kids want to know if I’m mad. I haven’t even said a word yet. Am I mad? No, I’m exhausted. I’m insecure. I don’t know what I’m doing, and their complaints and eye rolls only serve as a constant reminder…

  • downcast

        I feel emptied, like I don’t have enough of what this life requires. What do you want, you big ol’ bully? I wake up this morning knowing I’ve got a food shopping to do, a big week to prepare for at school. I was absent on Thursday and Friday, so this is the…