Gaining a heart of wisdom
If you Google the phrase "balanced Christian life," you will find over 2 million results in the blink of an eye. Books, magazines, and sermons will rush to your aid in calibrating the conflicting priorities that characterize this following life. It was no surprise that G.K. Chesterton's thoughts from Chapter 6 of Orthodoxy were not… Continue reading Where Wrath and Love Run Wild
Sometimes it’s the very thing that makes you wild, the thing that feels as if it may be your undoing, which ultimately saves your life. For me right now, the pebble in my shoe is a 15-foot speed boat parked parallel to the north side of our house. The college-aged son is a project magnet… Continue reading Following the Trail Back to Hope
Believe it or not, I’ve still got one pillowcase from my husband’s college dorm years. Its red, white, and blue stripes, warm out of the dryer, never fail to take me back to the 1970’s. Every imaginable consumer product from T-shirts and bed sheets to school supplies was available in a stars and stripes motif… Continue reading Patriotism, Pessimism, and the Church
When a committee of five gathered to draft the Declaration of Independence, it was Thomas Jefferson's pen that framed the colonies' complaints against England. Then, taking their own quills in hand, his colleagues made 43 changes to the document, and when it was presented to Congress, they made an additional forty-plus edits. Learning that Thomas… Continue reading Musings: April 2018
She assumed a humble expression, but the look in her eyes said plenty. This was a great accomplishment. A moment. She held my gaze, and then allowed the smile in her blue eyes to spread to her entire face as she did it again: My granddaughter stood up in my lap. In Chapter 4 of Orthodoxy,… Continue reading The Miracle of Humanity (and Fairy Tales for Grown Ups)
In this month of serial snow storms, it's been challenging to get into an Easter frame of mind. So often, resurrection is paired with images of new birth and sprouting things, but then, I was reminded amidst all the shoveling, blizzard warnings, and cancellations that resurrection springs forth out of death and THE resurrection was a… Continue reading Musings: March 2018
On my left hand, I wear the symbol of a choice I made 29 years ago. When I said yes to the union that was forged between my husband and me on that day of satin and lace, I was also saying no to a thousand other things, and this is the nature of choice.… Continue reading The Freedom of Limitations
Every so often I threaten to nestle a trash can close beside our mailbox so that most of what arrives there (courtesy of Rural Free Delivery) can hit the recycling bin at the Warren Transfer Station without ever having to come up the hill into our house. Then, there are days when it feels as… Continue reading Thinking Is Hard
The front-and-center project that's consuming time and thought these days is a parenting workshop that my husband and I will be teaching in March. Preparation includes reviewing everything we've read about parenting in the past couple of years, remembering everything we've stumbled upon in the past two decades in the trenches of parenting, discussing all… Continue reading Parenting After the Fall
He floats the question, and I almost miss the impact. Coming as it does in the midst of a firestorm of holy fury against the false prophets who are Jeremiah's contemporaries, the question sounds rhetorical: “'Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in… Continue reading Musings: January 2018
Living Our Days 