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Thin Places

Most people think about “summer reading.” I do my fair share in the summer months, but thanks to my mother, who enjoys getting up early in the morning with our children, I read three books over the course of the past two weeks. I always read before bed, but Mom’s devotion means I really can…

In honor of the idea that Christmas continues until the Feast of the Epiphany, we haven’t undecorated yet. It’s been all I could do to keep the tree and the Advent calendar, the festive dishtowels and holiday pillows, in their place. I’ve been ready to move on. But the church calendar tells me to wait…

My sister Kate was asked to contribute a photo and inspirational story for a new magazine, Serendipity. She chose to write about Penny, and I asked her if I could reprint the photo and story here. Thanks, Kate! I took this photo of my Brother-in-Law and my niece Penny three years ago, on a family…

I often feel paralyzed when I think about the problems in the world around us. Poverty, injustice, crime, substance abuse, disease. And whenever I set out to think about solving those problems, I seem to uncover another layer of dysfunction. Peel back the onion of educational inequity, for instance, and discover a broken family. Dig…

As the photo attests, I am quite pregnant. People see me and they think I should be headed for the hospital. And pretty soon I will be. My due date is a few weeks away, but my other two came early, and I’m already starting to dilate, so this one could arrive any day now.…

For days now, I’ve been trying to figure out what I could write about Penny’s fifth birthday. It somehow looms large and significant in my mind, and yet the words to express why slip away as soon as I try to capture them. Is it because I can remember myself at five? Or because she…

This past month, I had two posts published in other venues: “Who Decides Defective?” an op-ed about a new method of in-vitro fertilzation, published in the Hartford Courant.  I also had another post on Motherlode, “A Spiritual Defense of Gift-Giving,” about the ways to celebrate materialism at Christmastime.  Happy New Year, everyone! 

In November, I saw a speech given by a high school senior about the use of the word “retarded.” It’s passionate but composed, thought-provoking but easy to understand, compassionate but critical. And it will be hard to watch without dabbing your eyes. “Spread the Word to end the Word.” 

This past fall, I wrote a series called “Questions for Jesus,” where I looked at a different Biblical passage in which people ask Jesus questions. My favorite post of the bunch comes from Mark 4, where the disciples ask Jesus, “Don’t you care if we drown?” This post relates my own experiences in the early…

In August, I asked myself, “Does it make a difference to follow God?” or am I living the life of a practical atheist? Also in August, on the website of Christianity Today, I had an article, “The Gift of Grief.” It discusses changes to the psychological understanding of grief as well as a Christian response…
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