It's allergy season in Iowa and my husband is suffering. Sneezy, red, watery eyes, head stuffed. It's rough. So rough that we decided -- for everyone's sake -- he should sleep in our guest room for a bit. Usually this means I don't have to use the white noise machine placed perfectly on my bedside […]

I just finished reading an Arthur Brooks column in the Atlantic. Gorgeous words. Here is a little excerpt I want to share with you: You will notice that all of the modern untruths I’ve identified have one big thing in common: They say you should focus on yourself—your future, your career, your discomfort, your truth. […]

There are some days I leave the writing to the experts. Today is one of those days. "So what do I believe actually happened that morning on the third day after he died? I can tell you this: that what I believe happened and what in faith and with great joy I proclaim, is that […]

The Blessing of the Old Woman, The Tulip, and the Dog To be blessed said the old woman is to live and work so hard God's love washes right through you like milk through a cow *** To be blessed said the dark red tulip is to knock their eyes out with the slug of […]

I love me some Freddy Buechner, a Presbyterian pastor with a knack for turning a phrase. The smallest acts of kindness, even circumscribed within our own families, can, as Buechner says, "set the whole thing trembling." Kindness can change the world. Listen to how Buechner puts it: "Humanity is like an enormous spider web, so […]

I heard a poem yesterday … or I should say, a part of a poem. I am not sure who the author of the poem was. I am not even sure I have the phrase right. Nonetheless, I have been captured by its truth, this little, potentially misquoted, phrase: "Lord, most of what I love […]