faith

  • Hands

    When Martha and Mary lost their brother, Lazarus, and heard that Jesus was on the way to see them, they had two very different reactions. Martha went out to meet Him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. This is no surprise. After all, Martha is the sister who cooked, cleaned, and prepared everything when…

  • Mud

    I am driving my priest friend crazy. I come to him with the things I need fixed and I ask why God won’t fix them, and he comes back with the whole “free will” thing, and I wonder why in the world I am even praying, and say I need an all-powerful God, and my…

  • Savasana

    I woke up from a bone-chilling nightmare and got ready for a morning yoga class. Still shaking from the all too real dream, it was impossible to leave all of my thoughts outside the room, as our instructor had suggested. I carried that thing with me through warm-ups, sun salutations, warrior poses, triangles, and spinal…

  • Thread

    Thread

    I was having trouble sleeping with too many thoughts churning around in my brain. So much is happening in the lives of the people I love, and praying for them didn’t feel like enough. I wanted to place them, physically, in the arms of God. Since I couldn’t do that, I tried something else. I…

  • Wait

    Wait

    In early December, I bought five amaryllis plants for three friends and I to plant in pots in our kitchens. I kept two for myself, and even as I made that choice, it seemed superfluous. The amaryllis bulbs were meant to teach and remind us that God works under the surface, that He can make…

  • Up

    Up

    On the way home from a walk or run, I’ll often stop at the statue of Mary in front of our neighborhood chapel and pray. If I stand in front of her, I put my hands in hers as I ask for her intercession on my two children. I pray that she will be a…

  • Chutes

    I’ve never been very good at chess. For the same reason I require Google maps to get to places I’ve been a million times before, couldn’t visualize my renovated kitchen until the day it was done, and lost any mastery of math after algebra 2, it’s just not my natural skill set: I can’t see…

  • Hope in Growth Under the Surface – (in)courage

    Hope in Growth Under the Surface – (in)courage

    I’m no gardener, but this past October I planted tulip bulbs in the ground and shared more from the batch with some dear friends. As winter approached, I bought amaryllis bulbs, planted two in pots, and gave away still more. I wasn’t looking for a new hobby, and I don’t revel working in the dirt.…

  • Epiphany

    Epiphany

    I love epiphanies, those glimmers of clarity or wisdom that enable us to see things a little deeper, or better, or in a way we’ve never quite seen them before. Here on the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord, I went looking for the origin of just how the day got its name, because…

  • New

    New

    I’ve had some fun New Year’s Eves. When I was a kid, our parents would pre-order Chinese food for our dinner, and I remember with fondness the sticky red-sauced pork and fried rice we ate just once a year. In later years, I remember a fun NYE in a friend’s apartment with super-loud music and…