Why I Will Still Write at High Countries

In March 2018, boxes all around me in our new Tokyo home, I spoke on the phone with Elizabeth. Elizabeth, whom I met when we were two, after my grandma had been introduced to some new neighbors and said, "I have a granddaughter her age -- they should be friends!" Thirty-three years later, and we …

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The End

It's time -- the season for writing at High Countries has come to an end. How do I know? I've known for a few years now, actually, it was just hard to admit. Endings aren't nearly as exciting or colorful as beginnings, and so we let them drag on, hoping we might be able to …

Big Family Living Small

I've started something new. It's about living small with a family of six in Tokyo, with posts encompassing minimalism, sustainability, environmentalism, and intentionality within the context of a parenting and overseas living. If you are interested, please check it out here on Medium where you can follow and subscribe.

Don’t-ask-don’t-tell-don’t-care Days

I am a recovering Type A personality, which deserves a post in its own right. There are many descriptions of Type A to be found, few of them glowing or positive. (Though the competitive nature of Type A's, and the resulting successes, is lauded.) It is well-documented that people with these tendencies experience higher levels …

Tree Leaves and Grace.

Yesterday I wrote a rather scathing review of my failures in motherhood in my journal. We'd had a bad night while dad was away, and I had yelled and threatened entirely too much. After I finished scratching it all out with my pen, I left my writing nook (a little corner in our bedroom) and …

How We Sleep

Lately, we sleep like this, our left feet touching, our right legs bent against each other with my hand resting near your navel. + We rest here and wait until breath deepens on one side of the bed and, raspy, grows louder. This, I know, means I must nudge your shoulder to + roll over, …

Summer Reading List

Summer is short when your children attend Japanese school, six weeks to be exact. (For some, it's five!) And yet, after the first few years of longing with nostalgia for American summer (which still rears it's ugly head sometimes), I've come to feel that this amount of time is enough of a break to be …

Three Months Absent

Does it surprise me that I missed April, May, and June in this year of writing a post every month? Considering that we pulled off a move in a foreign country with our four children in that time, including new school enrollments for all of them, most of the paperwork in Japanese -- no, I'm …

The Rocking Chair.

God gives each of us … a life. Some get a life with a lot of kids, others with one, others with none. Some get marriage, some don’t. Some are given sickness and pain, others are given health and relative ease. Some, riches; some, poverty. Some are asked to live in the same house from …

Moving on.

I’ve noticed recently that I don’t want to leave the house. I’ve been choosing warm blankets next to the heater over the crisp air and sunshine. It may be because it’s February, which is usually the time of year when I feign hibernation and sink myself into books or limited series on Netflix. But I’m …