My husband suffered a terrible blow a few weeks ago. After working for a company for almost 32 years, his position was suddenly eliminated. His boss, his boss’s boss, and an HR person dropped this bombshell on him in an impromptu meeting, assuring him it…
Category: Matters of the Heart
An Unfolding Plan
(Advent) 2 minutes, 5 seconds I called gently from the other side of the door to my 22-month-old son who had accidentally locked himself in his room. He was too young to have much of a vocabulary, but he knew my voice and could follow…
Trust and Giving Thanks
(1 minute, 38 seconds) Personally, I have a beef with Mr. Incredible in the 2004 movie “The Incredibles.” After lying to his wife for an extended period of time about losing his job, Mr. Incredible steps back into the world of superhero business without being…
Broken Yet Flourishing
(2 minutes, 19 seconds) I am typing with five or six pieces of kinesiology tape stuck to my low back and hip. The girl who put it there, Carrie, is brilliant at all things biomechanical. The tape, placed in a specific and intricate pattern, lessens…
Heart Rocks
1 minute, 13 seconds “I brought you a gift from the North Shore!” My young friend’s eyes twinkled as she placed a heart-shaped stone in my palm. I am guilty of droning on to this sweet girl about my favorite place on earth, and I…
For Glory and For Beauty
2 minutes 45 seconds I have a few articles of clothing hanging in my closet that I have never worn. It’s not that I don’t like them; in fact it’s entirely the opposite. I like them so much I only want to wear them for…
EPIC Listening
6-24-222 minutes, 28 seconds I like games. Card games, board games, and backyard games all appeal to me. My very favorite is word games. You know, the kind where you scramble letters around to make words (Scrabble), arrange words to make sentences (You’ve Been Sentenced),…
Twinkle-less
Twinkle-less(1 minute, 30 seconds) I was listening to a young friend whose suffering is invisible. Her battle is constant, and her pain runs deep. She confided in me that her friends are stepping back, bowing out, and distant as she has tumbled deeper into dark…
Be All There
2/28/20221 minute, 54 seconds Missionary Jim Elliot once said, “Wherever you are, be all there.”I learned this lesson many years ago, tumbling down a staircase with my baby girl in one arm, my cell phone in the other, mid-conversation with my director. Other than an…
Temporary Sojourning
Temporary Sojourning12-23-21(1 minute, 45 seconds) This Christmas is the third year in a row that we are living in a different house. Though profoundly grateful to be settled again, I feel the burden of sojourning keenly.With or without changing your address regularly, you probably know…