Suburban Shalom

seeking peace and purpose from my little neck of the suburbs

A Road to Recovery

I’m going to need to recover from this past year of pandemic life. Sure, I learned to appreciate long walks, outings to the park, and eating more meals at home. I even cleaned out some closets and learned to play a little bit of jazz piano last spring. But I’ve also learned I have an unhealthy need … [Read more...]

Delight

In some ways I feel like I’ve been in a low-grade bad mood since last March, and winter isn’t helping. Maybe I’m not the only one? Of course I relish moments of joy and lightheartedness here and there every week. But even my children have noticed that I don’t smile or laugh as easily lately. If I … [Read more...]

Skin deep

Last week I went to a consultation with a nurse at a vein clinic. When I had three children in a span of 4.5 years, the veins in my legs staged a revolt. Unlike the spider veins my grandmothers had, I developed more bulging varicose veins that I keep trying to ignore. But they swell and tingle and … [Read more...]

Better things

Here’s a confession. I’ve consumed more news in the past few weeks than one should take in over the course of a whole year. My 6th grader asked me what my screen time was last week, and I evaded that question with shame. Not only was my screen time astounding, but the nature of the content during … [Read more...]