Raking, Raking, Raking
I rake leaves all day. I rake big piles onto an enormous blue tarp, and then I drag the tarp to the street where I dump the leaves. In our town, a truck comes by to suck up the leaves every week in autumn. It’s amusing to watch this enormous vacuum cleaner snout emerge from […]
We Keep Loving Others
A thought keeps running through my mind. Here: Nothing can stop us from loving our neighbor. Nothing can stop us from caring for others and working in small ways, right where we are, to improve lives. I think of Anne Frank’s beautiful words in her diary: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single […]
The Comfort of God
This morning, I spent some time reading 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. I love thinking about God as “the God of all comfort.” We read this: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort […]
Happy Birthday to Me
Today I turn 45 years old! What a wonderful day it’s been so far. My favorite birthday ritual involves journaling. If you don’t have a birthday ritual, steal mine! Tell me how it goes. I dream: I think about hopes and fresh goals for the coming year. I reflect: with my Bible in hand, I […]
Swooping Owls
It’s a dark autumn day here. With nearly bare trees and leaves on the path, it feels spooky and mysterious. We gaze up and see a large bird swooping down and then landing in the trees high, high up. An owl? We think the wingspan indicates an owl. Did you know that owls hoot the […]
Now We Bundle Up–No Bad Weather, Just Bad Clothing
We’ve loved our daily “loops” around the neighborhood. Since March, our daily walks have sustained us and provided structure, conversation, reflection time, and a regular mood boost. We’ve gained health, lost weight, and improved our relationships through the daily walk that happens several times a day. But now, with dropping temperatures, more rain, and a […]
Pace Yourself
Today I think about pacing ourselves in order to keep running the marathon that’s ahead of us–whatever that long stretch is in our own lives. We can slow down. We can pace ourselves. We have a lot of work left to do in our lives. We don’t have to do it all today. I’m not […]
Sitting Down with the Lord
A friend sent me a quote from Hannah Whitall Smith that I had never read before. (Thank you, Steve!) I just love it! I wish I had this quote when I wrote Seated with Christ because it conceptualizes so well my thoughts on Ephesians 2:6. The quote comes from a quote in Streams In The […]
Treats. Theatrics. Timers. Ugh!
I absolutely love teaching. It brings me so much joy! But every job contains elements of drudgery or downsides we must somehow manage. For me, it’s always been grading. I love helping students improve their writing—and I generally enjoying giving helpful feedback—but with so many students and so many essays to grade, the work feels […]
Cold and Wet
Today I walked around in the cold, wet neighborhood. I trudged through piles of cold, wet leaves on campus. It was cold. It was wet. I realized I don’t mind cold, and I don’t mind wet, but I don’t like cold, wet days at all. But the beauty of cold, wet, dreary days is that […]