In recent decades, a new tradition has sprung up called “Blue Christmas.” Have you heard of it? Hospitals, funeral homes and churches sometimes offer a seasonal service of worship that is especially designed for those who grieve at a time when all the world seems to be celebrating. Or that’s […]

Blackness. I cannot see far. It’s scary. I feel alone. Me and my heart. Symptoms raging inside. My spirit reaches out – out – beyond this room. Are You there? Are You here? Can You see me? Can You find me in this darkness? That is my midnight. What is […]

When I was young, I felt like the heroine of every story I read. Now, older, disabled, living a life of routine, the distance between me and her seems wider. In a book I just finished, the heroine stole my heart and healed it a bit, too. I loved that […]

Are you easily distracted? I am. One moment my gaze is fixed on The Goal and the next my head is swimming with paintings I want to create, clothing I’d like to wear, groceries I want to buy, relationships that need sorting out. Is there a Goal for this life […]

This broken moment. How did I end up here, like this? Where are YOU right now? What are the conversations and feelings and actions and reactions that brought you to where you are right now? There are tear stains on my face and I am tired. Usually I bounce through […]

What do you do when the world crashes down, horribly and unfairly, around you? Ginny Owens asks this question in her book Singing in the Dark. She notes: Instead of giving our pain over to God, we shut out the noise of what is wrong and broken. We turn to […]

Last night I visited the hospital. A nurse, efficient and distant, prepped me. Those cardiac sensations – so familiar and dreaded – shook my insides. I’d been to this clinic before; the insertion of an IV and heart monitor was standard. This was the first time, though, that they would […]

“Do you feel the weight of your darkness – mean thoughts, unmentionable desires, things you’ve done that you pray no one discovers? Do you keep trying to do things differently and keep tripping up?” Ginny Owens asks these questions in her devotional Singing in the Dark. Ginny is blind and […]

Remember this? [foogallery id=”2021″]   The sunflower, that, in spite of an environment filled with threats, thrived? This flower, at first fragile and threatened, became thick and tough and made it through. [foogallery id=”2130″]   That yellow beauty is you. And it’s me. Weathered and scarred (if you look closely.) […]

I’m bored.  Are you? I used to think that those who are bored are spoiled. Way too much free time and unused energy. Africans who wash clothes by hand and Latin Americans who sell trinkets on the streets cannot be bored because fighting to survive is a daily, hourly thing […]