I’ve been humming Gordon Lightfoot tunes since his passing last month. I mean, a little more than usual. My brothers and and I latched onto Gordon Lightfoot’s special genius as teenagers when visiting our mom’s side of the family in California the spring when Sundown topped the charts. We then learned that our beloved Uncle … Continue reading Lesser Known Lightfoot: The Singer’s Spiritual Side
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
I feel as if I've read the first three chapters of Genesis a zillion times. As a young adult I read the Bible through each year, starting with Genesis. Then I began following the lectionary, which leads us through the Scriptures every three years. That's a much more meditative pace, but Genesis 1-3 is so … Continue reading Uncentered: How Adam and Eve Reveal the Truth about You, Me and the Middle Tree
“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
I’ve struggled with it. I sometimes suspect that the word peace is used to shush rightful responses to real harm. I’m tempted to think peace is for reality deniers. And besides, being a broken human, I certainly can’t live peace. Can I? This month as I pondered a word for the year, “peace” kept rising … Continue reading Why Peace is my Word of the Year
When I speak to pretty much anyone these days, we share a litany of worries: rising prices, Covid variants, the nation’s angry political divide, “wars and rumors of wars.” “But there’s not much we can do about it,” a friend remarked the other day. “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.” Truly … Continue reading How to Offer Hope in Advent’s Exile
A couple of weeks back, a friend in an online writing group I'm in gave us a quick haiku challenge. Mine wasn't perfect, but it was straight from the heart: When autumn leaves twirl/ Like cowgirl ballerinas/ I miss you, Rich Mullins. He died 25 years ago today. I've written about Rich Mullins' contribution to … Continue reading 25 Years after his Death, I Still Miss Rich Mullins
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
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
"Our ravaged world cries out for hands that bear a radical gentleness." You don't often read a heart-stopping line in an Instagram post, but Sarah Clarkson (@sarahwanders) has a way of matching a golden heart with golden words, and her post spoke to the longing in my heart this morning. One of my neighbors hung … Continue reading Seeking Christ’s Radical Gentleness: Sparrowfare Selections for Holy Week
