by Elaine Olsen | Feb 21, 2013 | cancer, cancer volume 4, friendship, grief, suffering
It’s been a long time since I’ve raised a toast to my cancer season and uttered the words, “Bless you, Cancer.” I’m glad I haven’t forgotten how to do so. There’s been a lengthy span of less thankfulness and more confusion in recent days. Not so this past weekend. On...
by Elaine Olsen | Nov 12, 2012 | artistry, friendship, love, marriage, pilgrimage
Life is a journey; love is a dance. So she sings to us as we snake our way down I-40, making the trek back home. I hold his hand as we mark those miles through Appalachia, knowing that he is my home—the place where I feel safe and where the embers still burn with...
by Elaine Olsen | Oct 6, 2012 | authenticity, friendship, pain, words, writing
There it is again . . . that trigger that sends my mind spiraling. Accordingly, here are my tears, falling into my water bucket. I no longer know the identity of the wetness that soaks my rag and buries the floor in mop water. I scrub and scrub, trying to wash...
by Elaine Olsen | Sep 11, 2012 | artistry, contests, friendship, give aways
Morning gratefulness. I’m choosing it. Where do I begin? With her and this post she wrote about her mother, Glory, four years ago. It was one of my first connections with LauraLee; her story and her Glory touched me deeply back then—a witness that reaches through to...
by Elaine Olsen | Mar 17, 2012 | death, friendship, grief, Olive Press
It’s been two months since she died… their mom, my friend (you can read about it here). This past week, my husband and I made the six-hour round trip to their home to share with them in their sorrow. To do grief. To remember her and to allow that remembrance to touch...
by Elaine Olsen | Mar 2, 2012 | a quick word, friendship, words
“What’s this about? Forgive me if I’m prying, but you tossed it out there, and I caught it.” This was her response to me in an e-mail after I left a comment to one of her recent blog posts. It doesn’t much matter the content of my original comment; what...
