Category: The Valley
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This Changes Everything
The mechanized whir of a coffee bean grinder roared through the Starbucks lounge as my friend leaned in, eyes watery and full of compassion. Her hands encircled a steaming espresso, her voice barely above a whisper: “How are you handling this so well?” I glanced down at my phone lying…
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Friendship in your late twenties
Welcome to friendship in your late twenties — the roaring, soaring, tears-pouring twenties. It seems the easy days of community we created in college are behind us. Walking with each other through hard tests and breakups prepared us for life a little, but nothing compared to what we’re learning right…
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A Letter to Mom: I’m a mom now, too
Mom, I wanted to write to tell you that I’m a mom now, too. And I never thought I would have to walk this journey without you, but it’s happening — it’s here. He’s here. And he’s beautiful, Mom. Ocean-blue eyes with a dimple you could sink in. I’m convinced…
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Bookends
I was struck this year by the bookends of life. In the past fifteen months, I have watched my mom’s final breaths on this earth while anxiously awaiting my son’s first. I’ve drawn up the design for a gravestone in the same month I’ve decorated a newborn nursery. I’ve begged…
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Birth Story: I am not God.
Of all the lyrics on my 20-hour labor playlist, there’s a line from a Hillary Scott song that rings most resonant in my mind — Sometimes I gotta stop, remember that You’re God and I am not. I’m one week into life with little Luke, and those lyrics seem to…
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2024 Recap
It was a blustery Upland February in 2018. Little college-freshman Cali sat in the padded dorm chair of Bergwall Hall desperate to process everything that had just happened on a life-changing study abroad excursion throughout the entire land of Israel. The result was a blog. That blog became a storehouse…
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Redeeming Moments
Christmas has come and gone in a whirlwind of candlelight services, peanut butter kiss cookies, and sweet together time as a family. While it was technically our second Christmas without Mom, in some ways it felt like the first. Many times, we would reflect on last year and say things…
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Light of Christ
I’m that type — the Christmas tree is up. Like many women, I married a “no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving” kind of guy. But also like many women, I just got too eager. Took a personal day to get some nesting done and next thing I knew, the tree…
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Ode to My Mama
Mom,I can’t believe this week marks one year since you went home.I still resist the desperate urge to call you on the phone.Except we both know I’d never actually call,because you hated phone calls more than anything at all.“If it can’t be texted, it can wait!” you would say.And I…
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6:00 AM on Election Day
It was another tight-lipped election day in the land of the free and home of the brave. “I Voted” stickers littered lobbies like confetti while we longed for the day to be over already. We waded through puddles that November rain poured — a metaphor. Representative of our nation, I’m…
House on the Rock 