Carrying Jesus in Advent and throughout our lives

Carrying Jesus in Advent and throughout our lives

Twice, I was very pregnant in Advent, and I thought a lot about how riding on a donkey might bring on labour. With each month of pregnancy, babies occupied more of my body – as well as my mind and heart. And with birth, these little people become literal parts of my...
To see myself clearly – and with compassion

To see myself clearly – and with compassion

Image by Cindy Lever from Pixabay This spring, I got an itch for change, and I cut my hair. Sixteen inches of curls laying on the floor. I instantly felt so much lighter. And as I went about my life, it was a big enough change that I didn’t recognize my...
Suicide: On Crushing Weight and Never-Ending Love

Suicide: On Crushing Weight and Never-Ending Love

I was trying to decide if I wanted ice cream when I got a text from my sister: “Call mom or I when you can.” It was one of those moments where time stops. The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach knows that my world will never be the same. Someone I love lost...
A prayer for hope in the wreckage

A prayer for hope in the wreckage

Photo Credit: Sarah Tosh Manafo As the world feels like it might give way into dust, I’m clinging to a promise of hope. I can still feel the faint dry spot on my forehead where it was marked with ashes. We haven’t been promised permanence, and that pisses me off. The...
Embracing complexity to find a simple peace

Embracing complexity to find a simple peace

Photo Credit: Darcy Donovan Complexity is piling up like snowbanks on my lawn. We just get one wet snowfall shoveled in time for the next one to blow into a bank around the door.  The piles started out neatly enough. But it is late winter now and the ice threatens to...
On setting down our defenses…

On setting down our defenses…

Photo Credit: Tim Yaworski @livingskyguy It has been my experience that defense often follows discomfort when reconciliation is needed. In my Catholic faith tradition, discomfort can be understood as a gift that invites us to turn back, to repent, to make right. And...