You should know, I am not my best self around the holidays, I’m probably my truest self, but certainly not my best. This time of year sends me into a frenzy of holiday distraction and people-hangovers and shopping madness. I have multiple virtual carts loaded with items I don’t need, and I spend hours running fool’s errands. At the start of…
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To hold longing
I hand-picked the peeling birch branches we cut off the dying tree in the backyard. They’re white and spare and beautiful. Last Christmas, I hung small white doves from every twig. They sat like tiny messengers delivering a promise of peace for the year to come. This year, I chose those same spare branches to hang the ornaments for our…
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Light bearing
“…so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” Philippians 2:15 My son entered the world of light and noise and oxygen on a day when the windows stayed open. A breeze blew the curtains back and sun streamed…
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Advent, art, and incarnational living
I watched the film Good Will Hunting in four installments on the treadmill this week. I find Matt Damon and Ben Affleck suitable motivation to squeeze into spandex. I can’t remember the first time I saw the movie, but I recall a few specific lines leaping out at me from the screen when I first viewed it. Those same lines…
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Soul hunger
I think a lot about the minute changes in my body over time. It’s the former nurse in me, always wondering what meaning lies behind today’s aches and pains and lumps. Like every good student of anatomy and physiology, I came out of nursing school a closet hypochondriac. I take note of every twinge and every change, and I’ve come to…
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