The Spin Cycle

I Have a Confession

November 7, 2009

“In the end, your family tree is a diagram of a thousand choices, all made in your favor.“ Robert Brault Parenting is hardly an exact science. In fact, it is really the biggest conceivable game of roulette because virtually every decision a parent makes is fraught with uncertainty. The outcome is often unpredictable and we […]

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My Life Changed When I Was Adopted

February 2, 2009

Ironically, my parents were tremendous animal lovers. And it was a mutual love affair. It was logical since my mother grew up on a farm where she learned to care for all kinds of animals. My father also grew up in South Dakota and worked on farms for many years. Still … when we were growing […]

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The Long Good-Bye

May 13, 2007

My mother, Ethel, left this world on October 13, 2005, but she left her family long before that. She left us gradually, slowly inching further and further away until she finally retreated into her own little universe — a little corner of her own mind where we could no longer connect or interact with her. And eventually, I did something I never would have believed I could do: I wished that she would die.

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My Heart Belongs to Clint (Part Two)

August 29, 2006

Folks ask me how I came to know Clint Ritchie personally. Ironically, Conservatorship of Wendland played a role. Like so many other aspects of my life (so far), this story is stranger than fiction and demonstrates that a) I couldn’t make this stuff up and b) the hand of God is upon all aspects of our lives. […]

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“The Long Good-Bye” — Like All Else — Eventually Ends">“The Long Good-Bye” — Like All Else — Eventually Ends

November 2, 2005

I extend my thanks to all of you who have expressed such kind thoughts and remembrances in the past couple of weeks. I appreciate your reaching out more than I can describe and will write more later about “the long good-bye,” as Nancy Reagan aptly termed it, we said to my mother over a period of several years.

In tribute to her, I share here the eulogy that was read at the celebration of her life, a worship in memoriam, on October 19, 2005:

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