Entries by Lynda Hatcher

What Denial Looks Like

You’re awakened one night from a deep sleep. You detect the faint odor of smoke, but you hope that it was just a dream. You’re too groggy to get up and check the source of the smell. You roll over and attempt to go back to sleep. Eventually you do. Some time later, your senses are […]

Coloring Outside the Lines

Have you ever watched a child color? The look of excruciating pain fills the determined little face – a vice grip on the crayon, head cocked, tongue firmly pressing against the inside of the cheek. Sheer exhaustion before they put a lick of pigment on the paper. It’s hard to remember the first time I sat down […]

About Being Real ….

The Velveteen Rabbit,  written by Margery Williams, was one of many treasures on my children’s bookshelf. I unearthed it recently in our storage room. First published in 1922, “it chronicles the story of a stuffed rabbit and his quest to become real through the love of his owner.” I somehow managed to open it to the following passage when I thumbed […]

Perception and Reality

Sometimes, during the relentless struggle with an at-risk child, it’s not only what happens that is notable, but what doesn’t happen.I wish I could tell you about the time that my son sunk the winning basket in achampionship game, was the crucifer on Easter Sunday at church, serenely sat in a duck blind with his father and […]