By Nancy Chamberlain
Music has always been my healing mechanism. I wrote this song with a friend while going to school at BYU Idaho years ago. Recently, I wanted to add to it singing about my kids. The song is called “Believe”
Walking with a heavy load,
Wondering what my future holds.
Fearful, I will fail again,
Until I hear you say-
I believe in you.
Continue readingOut of everyone’s hands I didn’t see in the air when I asked my question earlier, I was most surprised to not see dad’s. My mild-mannered, quiet dad. I was always told I was just like him so I expected out of everyone in this room, his hand would have been raised in solidarity with mine. I was wrong.
Dad looked around at all of us and seemed a little nervous at the attention. He cleared his throat and nodded at mom. “First of all, I was the one that gave your grandma the elephant to begin with.”
It wasn’t that surprising but somehow, we all gasped like it was some revealing piece of information.
Continue readingEveryone waited for mom to explain. Despite being in the room and hearing the conversation leading up to my question she still seemed surprised. Like a student hearing the words pop quiz, she responded with “Hmmm?”
“The Elegant Elephant?” I asked matching the look on her face at having to explain.
She sighed and picked up the speed of her stirring. “Well, there was the time that Curtis broke it. We didn’t even attempt that good of job fixing it by then.”
I looked at Curtis.
“Mom!” he said. “I think we could have gone a bit longer without that coming up.”
“I just thought we were clearing the air, here,” mom said defensively and sat down on the chair.
“It’s not a confessional,” Curtis said. “We could have left that part out. It is not pertinent to this story.”
“No,” Sam said smiling, “do tell. All these years it was always, ‘Sam broke the elephant. Don’t tell, don’t tell.’ Nice to see I have company.”
Continue readingTo be clear, using all three syllables of my sister’s name is akin to mom using multiple punctuation. It meant serious business. Even though I was her older brother, my ‘little’ sister out-massed me by about 10 pounds of muscle. It’s been that way since she turned 15 and I was in my early 20’s. Which is about the last time I dared call her by her full first name. Not only that, she fights dirty. But this was serious business.
Sam came around the corner slowly glaring at me. Mom’s curiosity was piqued so she stood behind Sam. All I could see was her eyes peeking over Sam’s shoulder. “What?” Sam said in a monotone that was surprisingly threatening.
I didn’t care how tough she was at the moment. “You broke the Elegant Elephant?” I asked pointing to the shelf where it should have been. No more being covert about my mission today. I noticed mom quickly retreat back into the kitchen.
Continue readingI am ashamed to admit my first thought at seeing the missing heirloom was there was no chance in selling it if it was missing. No, I wasn’t planning on selling a gift from my grandma but I was also aware of the potential value. Which made me acutely aware of the loss. In essence, I had been robbed!
That was my initial human reaction. But I recovered before making a scene. I silently regained my composure so that I could exchange the necessary politeness a social gathering required. This dinner just earned a new obligation. I was going to have to don the hat of a private investigator to figure out where my inheritance was at currently. Hopefully, it had just been moved (another hopeful thought) for its safety and was awaiting (one more hopeful thought) me to retrieve it. I refused to panic quite yet. Besides, if I threw a fuss and caused a scene the others would question me and somehow probably find out about the value of the figurine. I mean, it took me less than five minutes on Google. Again, I must express the fact that the value does not matter to me. But it might look suspicious. Better to keep the value to myself and conduct a private investigation.
Continue readingI’ve been around
a minute or two.
Still learning as I go
but this much I know –
and you can quote me because
undeniably
it is true –
Continue readingI stood outside my grandma’s house and sighed. Thanksgiving at grandma’s was definitely not going to the same this year. This was something I had been dreading since I received the invitation from my mom last month. I tried desperately to come up with an excuse but it was made clear no excuse was acceptable. Thanksgiving at grandma’s was mandatory this year. While coercion is not usually an acceptable invitation, I decided I would go to the house one last time, suffer through the dinner, and pick up what was mine.
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