family

  • Name

    Name

    “Bye, Kristen!” I called to the beautiful, curly-haired Mom I had met a few weeks before at church. We had been in similar circles over the years, but had not officially been introduced until that Sunday. When I extended my hand and told her my name, Kristen laughed and replied, “Everyone knows who you are.”…

  • Face

    I have seen the Face of God. My eighteen-year old daughter was late to mass this Sunday and I was unaware. As a music minister at the front of the church, I didn’t see her sidle around the back corner and into the last pew. As it turns out, she, who had hoped to go…

  • Wrong

    Wrong

    There was something wrong with me but I didn’t know what it was. I was ten years old and sitting on my twin bed, trying to figure it out. For days, I had been burping far more than a tiny ten-year old should, and the smell that came out of my sixty-pound self was…foul. There’s…

  • Keeper

    Keeper

    As I settled into my seat at the annual gratitude mass for a large area charity, I shook my head in wonder. There were hundreds of people at the mass, and it had taken us quite a while to sit, there were so many people to hug. We’ve been a part of this place since…

  • Blessing

    Blessing

    I just returned from helping out at a retreat weekend, and though I’ve been a part of many such weekends, I always learn and take away something new. It seems we go to things like these when we most need it, and this weekend was no exception. Sometimes we hear something in one of the…

  • Window

    Window

    There is a large interior window in a dance studio where I teach early childhood music. On one side of the window is the seating area for waiting families and on the other, my teaching space. As I was prepping for class this morning on my side of the glass, my students came in with…

  • Provision

    Provision

    I pray, like, a lot. Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing or my anxious nature, but basically I am literally living out that impossible sounding admonition from scripture to “pray continually.” (1Thessalonians 5:17) When I wake up, I get on my knees just for a second or two to give the day to God. I do…

  • Alma Mater

    There was a college student observing in one of my preschool music classrooms today, and as I watched her, dark-haired and nervous, I saw myself so many years before. I was once a freshman education major, sent into classrooms to see if it was an environment in which I wanted to work for the rest-of-my-life,…

  • House

    House

    I am dreaming of a new house. I had a literal dream a couple of months ago, and in it I was so peaceful and happy that it’s now the place I go to in my mind when my mind needs a place to go. The house is the exact floor plan of a home…

  • Rainbow

    Rainbow

      I met with my spiritual director in a different room this month. It wasn’t what was planned, but since I’ve gotten more accustomed to things not being quite as I expect life-wise, I settled in and got comfy. It was a really pretty room, with a cozy mustard-colored couch, lots of fun throw-pillows, and…