When I was a young mother trying to finish a Bachelor of Arts in English, I relished my Tuesday evening class at the local college. The English department head, a kind woman with twinkling eyes and exacting standards, required us to read a book a week and come prepared to spend the first 30 minutes … Continue reading “Go and Be Human” with Close Reads: A Podcast for the Incurable Reader
“One year from now, you are likely to be much the same person except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I don’t remember who told me this back when I was young but I never forgot it; it's helped me track my reading year after year ever since. Lately the Goodreads Reading … Continue reading Fiction, News Addiction and The Genesis of Gender: Standouts from a Reading Year
Preparing for Thanksgiving this week, I notice heaviness in my heart, yet I want to be thankful for a life rich with good gifts. I turn to Tomie de Paola's golden-toned Look and Be Grateful and find the grace I'm seeking. De Paola's children's books have a lovely simplicity. His images transport the reader to … Continue reading Become a Child Again with Tomie de Paola’s Book of Everyday Thanksgiving
As the Supreme Court was pondering the landmark case Roe v. Wade, my generation came of age. "Abortion? What's that?" I asked my dad, who seemed to always have an informed opinion on the news. After explaining the basics of abortion to me, my father sent me to the high school library to research the … Continue reading Toward Better Abortion Conversations: A Play, a Poem and a Fragile Forward Path
In 1933, a 29-year-old French social worker moved to a communist suburb southeast of Paris to begin a remarkable undertaking. Madeleine Delbrêl and the women who joined her would live Gospel-infused lives in a working-class city dominated by Marxist ideology. Madeleine's life witnesses to the grace God can grant when souls commit themselves to love … Continue reading Engagement and Love: Madeleine Delbrêl’s Mission to Marxists and the “Ordinary People of the Streets”
A weekly current events Jeopardy! competition hooked me on the news when I was a teenager. As all good teachers do in varied ways, my high school American history teacher opened a way of life to his students by helping them develop a positive habit. In his case it was the habit of keeping up … Continue reading Loving our Neighbors while Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Contemplation on the News
After the COVID-19 lockdown two springs ago, I began taking the children in my counseling groups outdoors when school reopened in the fall. Noticing nature offered them the calming reset their minds and bodies needed. I needed it more than ever as well. On those brief walks outside, I allowed the boys and girls to … Continue reading Reclaiming Enchantment with The Lost Words
It is the people you meet and the books you read that change you most in a year. Whoever said that forgot to include experiences, invited or not, that change our lives in a moment. But that line about books and people has stayed with me since I read it sometime in my teens. While … Continue reading Fiction, Politics and Spiritual Physics: Sparrowfare’s Most Surprising 2021 Reads
I once saw a kitschy Christmas card featuring a photograph of a straw-filled manger. The caption read “King-sized Bed.” Despite its triteness, that caption stayed with me. The thought of God’s choice, binding himself to humanity by becoming one of us and in lowly circumstances whose fanfare was known only to shepherds and star-studying Magi … Continue reading The Call of the Small: An Advent Invitation
Snow is late this year, but winter's chill is in the air in my Colorado mountain valley. Time for a fire and a return to Narnia, Middle Earth, or maybe Sigrid Undset's Norway. Winter months are long here, but they are less so with the help of wintry tales. By the time the Fellowship of … Continue reading This Icelandic Children’s Tale Melts the Heart and Speaks Truth to Our Times
