Gratitude Archives - Soft In Hard Places

View From A Quarantine

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:06:38 +0000

”Is this our new normal?” we find ourselves wondering, though we know it can't go on forever. For now, though, we have nowhere to be except right where we are and that has never happened. I recognize it for the miracle that it is. But on Day eleventy-seven of our release from the confines of routine, I'm starting to feel a little adrift. 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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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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Let It Go

LisaPullenKent — Fri, 02 May 2014 11:17:05 +0000

Before moving to Columbia, Missouri, spring break meant a week off school to hang around the house and catch up on projects. I soon learned this is not the case in the Midwest. In CoMo, it’s ‘hasta la vista, baby,’ … Continue reading →

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The Long Haul

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:34:18 +0000

I’m washing up in a restroom at the Oklahoma City airport and for a moment I can’t place my location: hospital? hotel? restaurant? Elegant water faucets and gleaming granite countertops add to my sense of disorientation. I don’t even recognize … Continue reading →

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Lisa’s 365

LisaPullenKent — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 10:09:08 +0000

I saw a blurb about this project on January 1, 2014. Gratitude is pretty trendy right now, but when fully experienced, it can’t be denied that miraculous transformations are possible. In early 2008 Hailey Bartholomew, a photographer and film-maker, a … Continue reading →

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Name Them One By One

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 15:34:53 +0000

Giving thanks for abundance is greater than abundance itself. ~ Rumi I love Thanksgiving. It’s Christmas without the endless to-do list. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the tree-decorating, light-hanging, mall-shopping, card-sending, present-wrapping, stocking-stuffing frenzy, it’s just I’m … Continue reading →

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