DEEP WATERS

There's been quite a buzz over a certain Huffington Post article this week. I first heard about it when a friend shared the article link on my Facebook timeline. (Thanks Mr. Mitchell!) Well, I thought today I'd give my take on this cool project and add to all the buzz. So what's all the fuss about?  I'm so glad you asked... The buzz is over redheads. Specifically, redheads of African descent. Redheads like the two that live in my home... My Brown Gingers - Kalin and Jada So of course I found the article "Photographer Explores the Beautiful Diversity of Redheads of Color" quite fascinating.  The HuffPost article features London-based photographer Michelle Marshall and her project that documents Black and mixed-race redheads.   "I want to stir the perception that most of us have a 'ginger' as a white caucasian individual..." says Marshall. " As we struggle with issues of immigration, discrimination and r...

When I wrote my last post a week ago, I had no idea I was about to lose my father. He appeared to be getting better, had begun pulling out from his post operative delirium and had begun talking again. He'd even begun telling others that he wanted my mother moved to his hospital room "to talk business." Well, my Daddy's business now is spending time with Jesus and all the loved ones that beat him to heaven... I wanted to write this post to share just a bit about my Dad and what he meant to me. A dear friend said it so well in a text to me today... "He was a smart, loving, funny, warm and generous man. Oh and good looking!"  Anyone who knew him would have used the same words to describe him. Even the hospital staff adored him. They called him "Mr. Carl", and in a Baltimore accent, it sounded more like "Mr. Cawl." We all loved him. But God loved him more. So He decided to take him Home. I'm so grateful for the 45 years ...

When I began this blog series on Monday, I had no idea how many posts I'd write. As I began reminiscing over the four weeks I spent in Maryland beside my parents' hospital beds, I realized I could write an entire book. Yet all things on this side of heaven come to an end. And it seems I'm writing my next to last post in this series. Tomorrow will be the last. First, a quick recap for those joining me for the first time... Eleven days before Christmas, I boarded a 6am flight to Maryland after hearing that my Mom had been rushed to ICU. She suffered a serious infection, her body went into septic shock and she spent 14 long days in ICU.  Those days were long and trying, yet we began to see miracles unfold before our eyes. I've shared some of those miracles along the way.  I've also shared the setbacks. Like the fact that my Dad, who'd been planted beside my mother every single day, suffered a horrible fall, leading to the discovery of a degenerativ...

My Beautiful Parents: Lovely and Refined as Always After spending over a month watching my parents' health quickly decline, I have spent many hours sitting by their bedside, talking with my Mom and Dad and visiting with the many family members and friends that have visited them.  One more thing I did a lot of -- think.  And talk with the Lord. Now that I'm back in Arkansas with my husband and kids, I find myself still thinking quite a bit. And feeling a lot.  So this blog series is the baby birthed out of all that thinking. And praying. And feeling.  There's so much I could share... About the way my father's hand felt as I held it after his second surgery. How it felt to tuck my mother in at night before I left the hospital, placing her sheets and blankets snuggly around her shoulders. How it felt nurturing and loving, and made me wonder when exactly I had reversed roles with the woman who had tucked me in bed every night as a child. How I watched...