Gaining a heart of wisdom
Food preparation and clean-up run like a perpetual conveyor belt through my kitchen and through my life, so for me, the bigger challenge of hospitality is always logistics. I feel overwhelmed as I gather chairs from the far corners of the house. I forget to dust the top of the piano or spend too much time perseverating… Continue reading Hospitality: The Power of Authentic Connection
My first hospitality disaster looked like a blueberry pie, but once I cut into it, I could see it was clearly a blueberry soup enclosed in a pie crust. I hope I served it with ice cream, but even if I did, nothing can take the sting out of that memory. Thanks be to God,… Continue reading Recovering Hospitality as a Vital Aspect of the Christian Life
Across the miles they drove, journeying four hours north on washboard roads until they reached this country hill. “We want to talk about the conference,” they had said on the phone. “We can fill you in on the details in person. The more you know about us, the easier it will be for you to… Continue reading Offer The Priceless Welcome And Genuine Hospitality Of Friendship
We laughed at his European knickers and the idiosyncracies of his speech and manner, but it was the early 80s! Any sort of multi-media education was sufficiently novel to meet with appreciation—especially at a conservative Christian college. Therefore, Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? video series left its mark on my brain. "How Should… Continue reading When the Question You’re Asking is, “How Do I Respond to this Mess?”
Spring is officially here, and it's time to begin planning my annual dinner for the women of my church. Trust me, I'm no hospitality expert, but I try to make it special for them with a pretty table and a scrumptious dessert. One year I made a turkey dinner, another year it was chicken cordon… Continue reading What is Biblical Hospitality? Rediscover the Powerful Practice of Simply Making Room
We were new in church and new to the area, and our little three-bedroom fixer-upper was situated in a part of the universe in which it didn’t matter that we had been born and bred in Maine. We had not been born and bred in this part of Maine, and we had the accent (or lack of same) to… Continue reading People Who Are Cooked for Feel Cared For: 4 Helpful Hospitality Resources
This summer, I am learning to bake, prepare meals, and can our garden produce on a much smaller scale than ever before. A batch of whoopee pies makes about two dozen. That's approximately one picnic's worth in the days of four sons living at home, but an endless (and overwhelming!) supply for this empty nest.… Continue reading Why Does Feeding People Make Us Feel So Happy?
My schedule is undergoing a radical transformation as I learn the choreography of a different life. For twenty-one years, I have read stacks of books, supervised science experiments in my kitchen, and attempted to explain why math rules hardly ever change while spelling rules hardly ever stay the same. Homeschooling extended my stay-at-home mum role… Continue reading How Will You Respond to the Call of a Gathering God?
On Monday night, a crew of wonderful women landed at my house for chili and chowder--or chowdah if you're from around here. Our last pre-COVID gathering had been in February, and while we've been worshiping weekly in our lawn chairs under God's blue sky, I was beginning to miss our closer sharing of the truth… Continue reading There Is Wisdom in Listening to the Lack
When we moved to Mid-Coast Maine, we set ourselves a goal of inviting someone new to dinner every month. We gathered around crock pot roasts, mashed potatoes, home-canned green beans, and usually a pie for dessert. The elderly couple we invited for August was a delight: we talked books, they filled us in on local… Continue reading Vibrant Hospitality: Opening the Window of Relationship
Living Our Days 