alice at dawn alice shirey blog

A breath of fresh air for your mind.

Have you been prioritizing your daily to-do lists over life’s bigger picture? It can be so easy to get caught up in tasks and forget to foreground life’s mysteries once in a while. So set aside just five minutes and join me on Alice at Dawn as we ponder thought-provoking questions and navigate our complex world together.

alice at dawn alice shirey blog
Featured: To set the whole thing trembling ...

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 […]

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God's goodness ...

I still think that one of humanity's greatest flaws (and of course, my own) is our inability to comprehend, or even imagine, the sheer goodness of God. Because we cannot comprehend God's goodness, we live out of a pardigm that can be incredibly destructive. William Law said: "If your concept of God is radically false, […]

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The ruthless art of pruning ...

I worked in the gardens until sweat poured down my face. It was one of those sultry August weekends in Iowa that makes us all flee inside to avoid wilting. Though tempted to sip iced tea in the air conditioning, my gardens called to me. It is that time of year when my flamboyant, showoff-y […]

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Difficulty ...

It is difficult to know what and how to write in these times. Structures and norms and institutions we count on to be steady ground beneath our feet are crumbling or being intentionally destroyed. Though my life, in and of itself, could not be considered difficult or threatened, it is still hard to know how […]

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A community of fools ...

For mid-July, it was a cold morning. Gray clouds hovered over the pool and the summer breeze was brisk and chilly. And yet we gathered to swim. All shapes and sizes, ages and demographics. Some obviously athletic, others barely able to walk up the sidewalk to join the line. We were the faithful -- some […]

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Happiness: A Poem

After my post yesterday about poetry being the truest form of journalism, I thought I would share a few poems I love. What you must know about me is that I despise pretentious poems; poems it would take a PhD. to understand. If that is your jam, go for it. But it is not my […]

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When life is dark, read the poets ...

It is far too easy, when life is dark, to turn to facts and non-facts, arguments and counterarguments, all the words and torrents of opinion. We look to these things to help us make sense of the nonsensical, the absurd, the impossible to believe. But I find, when life is dark, poetry often helps more […]

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alice shirey alice at dawn blog

A mental breath of fresh air.

There is sometimes a perception that because I have been a pastor for the past 20 years and have been counseling at least as long, that I have my whole life together.

But honestly, that’s not always the case.

I struggle with many of the same things that you do, and that’s one of the reasons I write Alice at Dawn. So that we can tackle those questions together.


AbouT ALICE
alice at dawn alice shirey blog
Welcome to Alice at Dawn. My short posts are meant to be regular reminders to keep walking, to keep living, to continue to listen to the voice deep within your spirit that whispers ... this is the way. Walk in it.

Please join us, and invite others ... You are very, very welcome here.

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