The gift of mercy
In the living room, Christmas is still in the air. Yes, the Christmas tree is still up, until the 12th day of Christmas, January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. I’m content to live this way until Lent. But something tells me that I…
Gentle hands of grace
We live in a world that needs healing, from gentle hands of grace.Writer Kim Rosen visited a safe house in Kenya for young Masai women who had run away from home to escape genital mutilation. The girls liked to sing, and asked Rosen if she…
We dance to heal
This week a news story stopped me in my tracks.(Which is hardly abnormal these days.)But this story made me pay attention, inviting questions about what really matters. Let’s be honest, in today’s din, that’s not easy to do. After 30…
Red cardigan sweaters
Newborn babies dressed in red cardigan sweaters and sneakers. The news photograph on my screen makes me smile big. And I can tell you this; whatever is weighing me down can wait. This keeps my hope alive.Photos can be cathartic.…
Beautifully fragile
We are, every one of us, so beautifully fragile.It just doesn’t always feel that way does it? You know, the beautiful part.Instead, we feel on edge or unglued. And we recoil, apologize, or feel at the mercy of.Because we begin…
In the Presence
Sometimes we need stories more than food to stay alive. They remind us what really matters and allow us to see with our heart. Stories save us.Like the story about how Stephanie Disney (audiologist at the Commission for Children with…
What really matters
An all-star quarterback retired this past week. Andrew Luck is 29. Which means, too young to retire. Because of years of chronic pain, he made the decision based on priorities other than his job; health, family and joy.He was booed…
We need holy shadows
The images after the shootings still burn.There are times when we have no words.This is easy to take personally, for my job, after all, is to find words.Pain and violence and loss touch a raw nerve. I know when I…
One small candle
Very early Saturday morning, my sister Alicia, died. She is now in the arms of the angels. My heart is tender.This on top of a week watching images of suffering and pain, wondering, what do we do with all the…
The walls came down
On a June day in 1944, two weeks after D-Day, a few miles from the bloody shores of Omaha Beach, members of the 404th Fighter Group worked to carve an airstrip out of the Normandy countryside. Their efforts cost the lives of 28 Army…
