Gaining a heart of wisdom
Twenty minutes on ice. Twenty minutes on my feet. Then back to the couch and the ice pack -- and that was how I made it through the early days of mothering. Degenerative disc disease and pregnancy make for some painful and complicated logistics when they converge, but, oddly, it's not the pain I remember… Continue reading A Story of Waiting
Some mornings the new mercy arrives at 4 a.m., looking like a slice of lemon yellow sunrise behind ragged lavender clouds. My early morning drive to the hospital sent me due east. Not knowing what I would find there, I thanked God for the mercy of ambulances and strong men who lift gently and answer… Continue reading The Meeting Places
I started listening to NPR a few years ago because I had entered a season of needing to hear a different voice, of wanting to listen to viewpoints and encounter opinions that I did not share. In these days of challenging conversations around politics and race, it's important for me to remember that I am called… Continue reading God Bless the Whole World — No Exceptions
"Write what you know." It's good counsel, and, if followed, results in a kind of authenticity that can't happen if the author attempts to write outside her realm of real-life experience. Maybe that's why people are still reading Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss, a fictional journal that follows the life of Katherine Mortimer from her first entry… Continue reading Stepping Heavenward: A Timeless Classic
It has been said that "imagination" is the 21st-century equivalent to the scriptural word "heart," the center of emotion and intellect in biblical physiology. That may well be true, for many times it is my imagination that causes me to run aground in this following life. As if there were not enough stressful events going… Continue reading Is It Possible to Overcome Worry?
I come from a tradition that is suspicious of written or scripted prayers, believing that spontaneity is a sign of sincerity and casting askance glances at those who must borrow the words of others in order to talk to God. Then I became a mother and realized that not only were my own words in… Continue reading A Mosaic of Images on Joy and Prayer
Apparently, in addition to all his better-known gifts, Thomas Jefferson was a gardener. His experimentation with horticulture added over five hundred new fruits and vegetables to the world, but he was never able to successfully cultivate a vineyard at Monticello, his beloved Virginia home. Here's why: the French varieties of grapes he coveted had no… Continue reading Finding Rest in Humility
Because I'm a planner, I carry a planner, but the truth is that my planner carries me. All pristine and un-besmirched, the 2017 edition holds out the promise of glorious accomplishment and blessed organization in a life that often feels like spinning plates and chaos management. Shannan Martin started her marriage and motherhood in much… Continue reading The Freedom is in the Falling
I googled the term the first time I heard it, not even sure how to pronounce it. Enneagram: "Any - a - gram" Named for a nine-sided polygon, the Enneagram distinguishes and describes nine facets of the human personality, nine different ways of being, nine unique manifestations of the image of God on this planet. In The… Continue reading The Enneagram and The Road Back to You
In my gratitude journal, you will not find the words "back pain" or "dead air conditioner in the mini-van." And even though I have read (and re-read) the Beatitudes, I am in a season of mourning deeply over the advancing dementia of a dear friend -- and I'm not feeling the least bit blessed by… Continue reading Ten Thousand Truths
