Gratitude and maintaining perspective

Gratitude and maintaining perspective

Gratitude is our invitation at Thanksgiving, a feast to celebrate the work and gifts of harvest. In my corner of the world, it was the second consecutive year of drought for many farming families. My garden was well watered by the sprinklers, but I crowded the space....
Receiving the Gift may be the hardest work of all…

Receiving the Gift may be the hardest work of all…

Jesus arrives and we receive the One we have awaited. The seasons and feast days of church calendars exist not only to change the colours and routines of faith life, but also change the way we live our whole lives. We learn to practice waiting – in joyful hope – for...
Resurrection practice in the wake of surviving suffering

Resurrection practice in the wake of surviving suffering

Photo Credit: Becky Stevenson When I think about the long list of things I need to practice, resurrection has never made the list. But I have been returning to the theme year after year in my writing. In 2017, I wrote about not being ready to rise. The next year, I...
Imperfection, knitting, and doing the wash with God

Imperfection, knitting, and doing the wash with God

Imperfection and I have had a rocky relationship. For years, I pretended she didn’t even exist. When she showed up unexpectedly, I dressed her up in different clothes and tried to pass her off as someone else. I recognized, eventually, that she was actually a roommate...
In pursuit of a bit more peace…

In pursuit of a bit more peace…

Photo Credit: Ken Thorson There was an easy peace and lots of laughter when the clocks rolled into 2018 totally unnoticed.  About three minutes past midnight, my six-year-old, staying up for the first time, asked, “When do we do the countdown, Mom?”  (Thank you,...