May 3 I want to be a gardener—to know my botanical names, to identify seeds, to plant them so they grow the best possible fruit. Someday, I want to be that little old lady who wears sunhats and keeps seeds in her sweater pockets. But I’m a beginner. If gardening is an art (which I … Continue reading On Gardening and Belonging
April 19 I’ve spent February, March, and April getting to know C. S. Lewis through his works. From Surprised by Joy to The Magician’s Nephew to The Weight of Glory to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis has stirred something inside me. There’s a German word he used—sehnsucht—to describe his inconsolable ache for something … Continue reading Sehnsucht: My New Blog Playlist
April 5 Life is fleeting, I read in Ecclesiastes. Make us aware of our end, the Psalmist asks. We came from dust and to dust we’re returning, God says. And yet there are gifts under the sun. Like Sunday afternoons picking guitars on the patio, dangling bare feet off the dock, reading Narnia, visiting neighbors, … Continue reading Something New Under the Son
The Internet isn’t just bawling with dark news and death tolls these days. Look a little closer and you’ll find stories— hopeful ones. Old people still madly in love, communities using the web to unite, neighbors singing the Doxology from their porches at nine sharp each morning. And then there’s the story God’s spinning smack … Continue reading Story of stories
I brush my teeth at a window that overlooks our side yard, where we’ve got tarps stretched under the evergreen trees and anchored by cement blocks. Each morning looks like the last— drab skies and winter wind over the tarped ground, my elbows on the windowsill. It’s barely March and I’m achy under spring fever. … Continue reading Spring Fever and Our Longing for Something New
Something stopped me from full-throttle resolution-writing this week. I realized the last 365 days have been some of the most pivotal in my life. I don’t want to leap into a new year—much less the next ten—without stopping, looking over my shoulder, and saying, “God, you’ve done lovely, mighty things.” Before we speed into January … Continue reading Look Back Before You Look Ahead: 6 Lessons from 2019
October 13 Last night, I pulled on a jacket and walked out into the night. For the first time, October made me shiver. I stood and listened. Silence. Shadows. Cold. I turned and looked up the slope to my home. Yellow light poured from the windows and music floated from somewhere inside. Laughter. Light. Warmth. … Continue reading A Glimpse of Home
September 1 You and I are corruptible beings because our great-grandpa swallowed the poison of curse. We’re banished to the dust we came from (Gen. 3:19). Our days are like grass ripped by the wind. God knows we’re perishable, rotting (Ps. 103:14-15). And yet. Grace acted, history shifted, and the Father took the Son from … Continue reading “He Will Stand On the Dust”
March 3 I turned eighteen last week. I don’t feel necessarily older, even though I can vote now. My birthday morning was a wintry one—20 degrees and icy. Just another hint that this world isn’t my perfect home. I read a liturgy on Thursday morning from one of my favorite books, Every Moment Holy by … Continue reading A Birthday Liturgy
