The Humble Discovery of Truth that Makes Us and Defines Us

The Humble Discovery of Truth that Makes Us and Defines Us

There’s a peculiar satisfaction that comes with being right. Given the opportunity, we’ll make an idol of it and even run roughshod over those we claim to love in order to win an argument, thereby trading peace for the honor of clutching the blue ribbon of "rightness" close to our hearts. Often what’s at stake… Continue reading The Humble Discovery of Truth that Makes Us and Defines Us

How to Persevere in Hope When the Outcome is Uncertain

Persevere in Hope When the Outcome is Uncertain

We sat in silent disbelief, neither of us knowing what to say.  When my husband’s job was eliminated without warning, the news landed like a tidal wave:  completely unexpected and comprehensively devastating.  Then, as the wave receded, applications, interviews, and the thin hope that accompanies waiting seemed to set the agenda for our family’s unknown… Continue reading How to Persevere in Hope When the Outcome is Uncertain

Uncomfortable Reading to Explore Your Own Heart of Darkness

"Like a running blaze in the plain, like a flash of lightening in the clouds. We live in the flicker.” Joseph Conrad

This summer, two of my sons spent the better part of a long weekend at my house working on their trucks. One came equipped with tools, the other with his wife and two delightful children. In telling the story of those three days, my grandchildren would report on story time, art projects, and the mingling… Continue reading Uncomfortable Reading to Explore Your Own Heart of Darkness

Timeless Words About Love for Your Valentine’s Day

"Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth." I John 3:18

The snow is flying sideways like rice at a wedding, and I'm reading Lore Wilbert's blog post about marriage. She writes: "'We don’t treat our home like it’s the place where we can ‘be real,’ as though every other relationship in our lives deserves the fruit of the Spirit, but at home we can drop… Continue reading Timeless Words About Love for Your Valentine’s Day

Musings: September 2018

The God who says, "Do it again" every morning to the sun never tires of amazing His children, both big and small.

Tired metaphor though it be, the transformation from chubby caterpillar to seemingly inanimate chrysalis, and then to elegant and dainty flying monarch was new again to me in this late summer season of 2018, because it was new to my tiny grandson. "Leafy" had no idea that the milkweed he munched in a retired goldfish… Continue reading Musings: September 2018

How Is Your Reading Impacting Your Life?

"Reading literature, more than informing us, forms us." Karen Swallow Prior

In my small, sleepy hometown, the day the Bookmobile parked across the road from Clowater's Market was nothing short of breathtaking. I recall no scheduled rhythm or advance warning, but somehow word reached us, and I pedaled my bike down Route 1 with an empty book bag slung over the handle bars. Filling the bag… Continue reading How Is Your Reading Impacting Your Life?

An Exuberant Life

Fierce Convictions by Karen Swallow Prior:  A Book Review In order for Hannah More to be truly Hannah More, she had to challenge nearly every aspect of her cultural context.  Fierce Convictions is richly historical and rooted deeply in the period straddling the 18th and 19th centuries, because it is impossible to appreciate the impact of… Continue reading An Exuberant Life