Gaining a heart of wisdom
For long years, I have ridden the bucking bronco of calling, leaning into the tension of being a fairly ambitious woman in a life that leaves little room for goals beyond laundry management and remembering to thaw something for dinner. Anyone with a Facebook account or a presence on Instagram knows that there are people… Continue reading When God Asks for More but it Looks Like Less
It's been a long time since I browsed in a Christian bookstore. They're exceptionally rare here in Maine, but on one of my last excursions, I inquired about the poetry section hoping to lay hands on something by Luci Shaw or Marjorie Maddox. Alas, it was not to be on this day. "We don't carry… Continue reading A Literary Pursuit of Beauty, Grace, and Truth
One hundred years ago, the war to end all wars ended, leaving the world a very different place, and, ironically, setting the stage for the next world war. Geographic boundaries would shift and entire countries would be swallowed up or renamed, but even more seismic changes were at work in the spiritual realm as hearts… Continue reading Oswald Chambers’s Message of Hope in the Midst of War
In a year that has seen at least 23 school shootings, parental grief lies very near the surface of our society. At the same distressing time, a stunning 1 in 4 women has had an abortion by age 45, creating a quieter, but even greater undercurrent of grief — one mostly unshared and unacknowledged. Then there are… Continue reading Celebrating Christmas in a Season of Loss
One day, the Gift of all gifts was carried into a public space. Although the Gift could have come with a transcendence too glorious for human eyes, It came instead in the arms of a young Jewish woman. No one noticed, For the Gift was small, Unexpected. Besides-- No one was looking for a Gift… Continue reading Are You Ready to Receive the Gift of Advent?
In just a few days, we'll begin the season of Advent. Even if you don't observe much else on the liturgical calendar, it's hard to avoid the on-ramp to Christmas. Instead of counting shopping days and check marks on my do-list, my practice has been to think of Advent as a time of preparation for… Continue reading Musings: November 2018
I never leave the house without a book . . . BUT one busy Wednesday when an unexpected medical appointment pushed an already derailed schedule even further off track, I jumped into the driver's seat of our car, headed down the bumpy hill of our driveway, and only then realized the horrible truth. In my… Continue reading Reading as a Way of Life
Twenty years ago, my husband and I made one of the most difficult decisions of our married life: we decided to leave a church and to worship elsewhere. Leaving behind dear people we loved (and likely offending more than one person in the process), we left that fellowship convinced that God was telling us it… Continue reading The Hard Work of Hanging On and the Brave Work of Letting Go
The distance around my elliptical driveway is one tenth of a mile. I know this because I drove around it, watching the odometer—and then did it again just to be sure. This fall I’ve been doing a careful jog-trot around its leaf-strewn gravel, a compromise intended to jump start a flagging metabolism without putting undue… Continue reading Gratitude Is a Gift for All Seasons
One morning, deep into the throes of our kitchen renovation, it dawned on me that I had no idea where our toaster was. Having reduced breakfast to the lowest common denominator of toasted bagels with cream cheese, my quest for the toaster was more than idle curiosity, and when it showed up in the furnace… Continue reading Following the Instructions for a Grateful Heart
Living Our Days 