The Cup of Tea
I rediscover the joy of peppermint tea in the afternoon. It’s like a little cup of liquid Christmas. It slows you down to heat the water, steep the tea, and sip it slowly. It slows you down to inhale the aroma and enjoy the smell of peppermint. If the day isn’t going well for you, […]
When You Don’t Know—Ask
In my study of 1 John, I pause at these verses: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. I think about how God may want me to “lay down my life” in specific […]
The Beauty Indoors
During the cold winter months, I love to see flowers blooming in my living room or kitchen. My friend just brought me a planted amaryllis bulb in wax. I’ve also grown paperwhites in the winter. I love growing flowering things and how they contrast with the white, barrenness of the season. Both the waxed amaryllis […]
Garnishing the Soul
I’m rereading Delighting in the Trinity (it’s the kind of book one must read again and again!), and I find myself mesmerized by Michael Reeves’ description of the Holy Spirit early in the book. He reminds us how the Holy Spirit “garnishes and beautifies” and “vitalizes and refreshes.” Reeves writes, “Small wonder, then, that creativity, […]
Overload
Today as I attempted to build an online course, I kept received an error message that the site was experiencing an unexpectedly high number of users. With traffic to the site so demanding, everything began to shut down. Nothing would load. Every single thing I tried to do took an exceedingly long time. And then […]
Another Semester Nearly Finished
It’s the last week of classes at Penn State, and then students take exams and professors frantically grade papers. It’s been a different teaching life with masks and COVID testing and vaccine mandates and updates about community transmission. But we did it! Our class survived another semester. I’ve never seen their faces. Can you imagine? […]
Even in Winter. Maybe Because of Winter.
Today my husband and I took a walk along Spring Creek. What a stark contrast from the turtles and ducks of summer! Instead, we enjoyed the bare trees, the water that rushed over rocks sounding distinctly icy rather than what sounds like singing in spring. I saw no speckled trout. I smelled no sweet flowers. […]
Because He Wants You to Hold On
Writers deal with deadlines. They normally keep to writing schedules. These past few weeks, I’ve learned a key spiritual lesson: When God delays your schedule or thwarts your writing plan, it’s because He’s teaching something you need for the writing. If you’ve been following along, you know it’s a season of surgeries and recoveries for […]
What They Remember
At the end of each semester, I always ask students what writing they most remember from the whole course. Which sentence from the writing we’ve read all semester (books, journal articles, sample student writing, etc) stayed in their minds? It’s a great activity because I’m able to prove how we latch on to sentences with […]
Walking in the Night
During the Christmas season, it’s fun to take our walk at night to see all the Christmas trees lit up inside homes; to see the outdoor lights; and to experience the world a little differently. With all the Christmas lights shining, we don’t need a flashlight. It’s quiet. We listen for owls. We think we […]