Family Archives - Soft In Hard Places

Antidote to Disillusionment*

LisaPullenKent — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 02:39:23 +0000

*Reading given at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, online, August 9, 2020 “Always have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” Maya Angelou In what do I place my trust? This profound, existential … Continue reading →

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Resurgent Hope

LisaPullenKent — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 21:28:16 +0000

I read once that Canadian geese are monogamous, that most couples stay together all their lives. Considering the brutality of life in this wild world, I find that to be an inspiring example of devotion, applicable to the human condition, particularly in our postmodern reality. Continue reading →

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The Way Home

LisaPullenKent — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 04:38:53 +0000

I went to church this morning—on my couch. A dutiful daughter, I spent the first half of my life in religious prostration, and then I left. But detachment from dogma meant disconnect from community and I wandered, people-less into my … Continue reading →

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Just Breathe

LisaPullenKent — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 19:47:33 +0000

Re-posted from March 6, 2014 “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart.I am, I am, I am.” Sylvia Plath There’s a stillness that descends on the hospital late at night, softening the harshness … Continue reading →

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Depth of Field

LisaPullenKent — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 00:05:09 +0000

It’s a gorgeous spring day on our 22 acres outside Fulton, a brocade of rolling green set against a periwinkle sky. It’s where I come to breathe. Today all four kids, their families, plus my dad and sister visiting from … Continue reading →

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And So This Is Christmas … Let The Grief In

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 00:45:18 +0000

It’s late December, only days to Christmas. The kids are out of school and it’s dark already at 4:30 pm. All the lights burn in the kitchen where my husband is busy making sugar cookies with our girls. Flour dusts … Continue reading →

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Exquisite Grief

LisaPullenKent — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 22:06:54 +0000

I knew she'd stay close, that we would feel her; I didn't know she would come to me when I was exhausted and spent, in the dream-like trance of half-sleep, and spread comfort like warmth through my chest, or when I was quiet and contemplative, in a cool breeze, gently caressing my face and answering my question, "Is that you, Mom?" Continue reading →

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Eulogy To My Mother

LisaPullenKent — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 01:23:16 +0000

When she shall die,Take her and cut her out in little stars,And she will make the face of heaven so fineThat all the world will be in love with nightAnd pay no worship to the garish sun. William Shakespeare Patricia … Continue reading →

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In Her Image

LisaPullenKent — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 02:00:43 +0000

Sometimes I feel like a motherless childSometimes I feel like a motherless childSometimes I feel like a motherless childA long way from home African-American Spiritual I’m going to lose my mother. It’s an inevitability I never used to think about. … Continue reading →

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To Believe or Not to Believe

LisaPullenKent — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 03:26:37 +0000

“Mom, is Santa real?” My youngest shouts this over the top of Katy Perry’s “Roar” playing on the radio as I’m dodging traffic on Providence Road, trying to get to gymnastics. I shouldn’t be surprised that questions of this magnitude … Continue reading →

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