hope

  • Namaste

    Namaste

    I was putting my strawberries and avocados on the checkout counter at the farm stand when I saw him. A baby boy just old enough to sit in the front of the cart with a tiny Red Sox cap on his little head. He was looking at me before I saw him, and I got…

  • Anchor

    Anchor

    It took almost more energy than I had to pick up my rosary beads. My relationship with intercessory prayer has been complicated lately, and I’m not really sure what I believe about it, but on the eve of a friend’s surgery, I moved through the beads and dedicated the time to my friend, his family,…

  • Romans 8:28

    Romans 8:28

    When we were little, we lived on the third floor of a triple-decker on Elmer Road in Dorchester. My mother told the story of one day up there with us: a four-year old, three-year old me, and our six-month old baby sister. Mom had gotten the groceries and three children up the three flights of…

  • 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.…

  • Lens

    Lens

    See with a God-shaped lens, and set your minds toward hope. Here is not our home.

  • Vision

    Vision

    In hopeful, clear moments, I see that the Lord is actually in this place, in what can seem to me like desert. And sometimes I’m sleeping on stone.

  • Advent

    Advent

    It was the day after Thanksgiving, and the traditional start to the Christmas season, but I didn’t feel like Christmas.

  • Trust

    Once there was a girl and she walked through the halls of a large, sprawling house which she did not build. She carried a blueprint in her pocket and sometimes she consulted it for direction, but not always. The girl walked, in and out of halls and rooms, through every year of her life. In…

  • 914 (part one)

    I was done with signs. Done with trusting the intuition I felt God had given me from being in constant communication and relationship with him. Done with scanning my life, both exterior and interior, for leadings, messages, and hope. I felt cast off from my former status of much-loved-dear-daughter and it hurt. The saddest part…

  • 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.…