Gaining a heart of wisdom
As I write today, Houston is well into the long rebuilding that follows a hurricane and flooding, and Irma has raged through the Caribbean islands and through Florida, leaving a wake of destruction and death. In an odd sort of coincidence, those of us who are reading Jayber Crow according to the schedule have been… Continue reading Like the Sound of Many Waters — Jayber Crow Discussion (3)
Last summer, we canoed down the Saco River. With kayaks, canoes, and colorful life jackets, we were a festive family flotilla bobbing along in the gentle current. On the way to our destination, we swam, sunned ourselves on sandbars, and the kids played a rousing game of gunwale wars. It was the kind of day… Continue reading Faith, Family, and the Adoption Journey
My faith unraveled at a Christian college. I know that’s not the way it’s supposed to happen, and I can remember wishing that a hostile, atheistic professor had bludgeoned me into my doubts with brilliantly irrefutable arguments. It would make for a much better story. Instead, the truth is I just got numb. The constant barrage… Continue reading 3 Stories Completely Ended: Jayber Crow Discussion Group (2)
Somewhere within the first decade of our marriage, my husband and I began to notice a disturbing trend: marriages dissolving all around us. In the church we attended at that time, three couples went their separate ways in a single year. They were active, visible members -- regular attenders. We looked at each other, both… Continue reading Activate the Love Filter: 5 Principles to Safeguard Your Marriage
The house where I grew up is gone, and I haven't returned to pay homage to the empty space. For me, home -- the place of belonging and permanence -- is this country hill which has created in me a deep appreciation and understanding of the importance of place. Expecting to live solitary and transient,… Continue reading Jayber Crow: Welcome to the Discussion!
Joanne's kitchen table was an uncontrollable force in her life, always covered with an assortment of books, mail, loaves of bread, and magazines. It became a joke between us that she was always in the process of clearing it. Fortunately for me, another uncontrollable force in her life was the power of God. She had… Continue reading Coming Alongside as a Way of Life
Loon call trills through the open window just as the rain begins to fall. I leave the sash thrown wide because, I ask you, who could close a window on a song like that? And as summer draws to a close, I am reluctant to close the window on a season that has been so… Continue reading Musings — August 2017
We were the fun department: Human Resources. We all had cute accessories and big hair. (Hey, it was the 80's.) After the whole department took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test, we gathered after work to discuss the results. Our facilitator began by dividing us into two seemingly random groups tasked with the answer to… Continue reading Living Beyond First Person: How to Really Benefit from Personality Inventories
We arrived at our campsite well after dark. The rodeo had been a much-anticipated highlight of our cross-country trip, and no one was in a hurry to stop talking about it -- or to crawl into our sleeping bags. It’s a good thing, too, because standing where our tent should have been was a small… Continue reading The Perfect Vacation for an Imperfect Family
We picked raspberries a couple of weeks ago -- the free kind that grow along the edges of fields and in the company of thistles. They were succulent. I could wrap words around a description of raspberry picking: the gentle encompassing pressure that releases a perfectly ripe berry from its stem; the empty white cone… Continue reading Life, Life, and More Life
Living Our Days 