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  • Word

    Dear God, I’ve been reading about people who are praying, journaling, and thinking all in a quest to find One Word that might give shape and focus to their lives in the new year. And since you made me you know, that kind of thing is totally my jam.   So, I thought I’d go to…

  • Glass

    I have to buy a new blender. My old one was a wedding shower gift, old and tired, and it worked fine for years, but it’s showing signs that it’s on the way out. It even has a crack in it that’s held together by duct tape, believe it or not. Since I depend on…

  • Gifts

    There once was a girl who had lots of gifts. She could sing and tell stories and when she was well rested and filled with coffee and focus, she could be very kind. The girl went about her day looking for opportunities to be helpful and generous and she was those things, except for when…

  • Flowers

    On Wednesday, I sang at the funeral for Arlene, a longtime member of our community. I watched with awe as the flowers came in, one huge arrangement after another. Made of coordinated fall colors, they were perfect for Thanksgiving and I thought to myself: in their grief, this family is giving their beloved chapel a…

  • Click

    Once I travelled south to New York City with my daughter for the day to see a show and go back home again. On the same day, another woman travelled north with her son to see the same show. We sat a row apart and did not meet. She reads Shauna Niequist, loves her family…

  • Advent

    https://christynockels.com/wp-content/uploads/amaryllis-square-podcast-image.jpg Advent is right on time this year. The word Advent embodies hope and remembrance and anticipation of something bursting through, of light coming into darkness. Advent is active, stretching and seeking for something we know is on its way. And it’s joyful; even though we’re waiting in darkness, we know the light will come.…

  • Round

    When I heard the news that my first music teacher had died, I thought what most of her thousands of students probably did: Ta ta ti ti ta    ti ti ti ti ta ta It was a sweet way to teach basic sight-reading. On a huge, poster size flip board were illustrations and simple syllables…

  • Daughters

    All of the mother-daughter pairs were at the craft store today, and then they all followed me over to the Paper Store. These girls and women stuck out to me all day long. They were a variety of ages…children to elderly, and some were sweet and others were annoyed. After all, this is the essence…

  • Door

    I am always sending things out: ideas, emotions, hope, and it sometimes seems that I am sending these things out into a shapeless void. I place pieces of my heart in sealed envelopes, put them in my outgoing mail, and never hear anything ever again. This is a false view, of course, and self-centered and…

  • Count

    My vote doesn’t count. As a resident in a state that will go decidedly one way, you could say that my vote doesn’t make a difference. So why, you may ask, have I tortured myself, then, in watching every minute of every debate this year? Why have I taken in more information and more hate…