An Ode to this Cat
I have a lap cat. If you’re sitting down, she’s in your lap. If you’re in bed, she’s beside you. If you’re watching TV, she’s watching TV with you. In the wintertime, I love having a cat close by. I love how chosen I feel by this little cat who wants my company all the […]
A New Kind of Christmas Joy
Everyone wishes for a special and meaningful holiday season. We seek happiness, great memories, joyful and peaceful moods, and laughter. We work hard to create experiences for our families. This can feel overwhelming, exhausting, and disappointing. But there’s an escape from this way of thinking and doing. There’s a different path to Christmas joy. This […]
Still on the Path
Today I’ve been reflecting on the last several weeks of rest and recuperation. For someone like me who deeply values achievement, goal-setting, and productivity, the unseen work of rest and recuperation feels downright wrong. With low motivation and a proclivity to lounge about more than do anything useful, I feel like a different person. But […]
I Finally Tried the Fire Crackers Recipe
Since I’d seen people posting about these addictive crackers to make for holiday parties or just to have for snacking, I finally decided to try them. How could they be that good? It’s a simple recipe called “Fire Crackers”: https://www.food.com/recipe/fire-crackers-423316 You basically gently mix a few sleeves of saltine crackers with this mixture: canola oil […]
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? […]