Today is Ash Wednesday, and this day is one thing I miss. Eastern Orthodox Lent begins with a tradition called Forgiveness Vespers, when all the parishioners gather in a circle and ask for and receive forgiveness from each other. It is a beautiful ceremony that always causes me to shed a few tears. This coming …
I apologize that this post is a little longer than usual. I wanted to give you a look into how I write a poem. Note: This poem was relatively easy to write. There are plenty of poems I spend more time on and work harder on. But you do get a little glimpse into my …
Last January I chose the word GROW as my guiding word for the year. I never new how painful – and beautiful – growing can be. In many ways, this year was a year of failure. Time and time again, I felt like a failure at my job, at home, and as a writer. I am …
Two years ago I started reading a bunch of Christian bloggers. I started learning who the talented writers and the popular bloggers were. Severals of these writers published books, which I read. I experienced wonder. I saw beauty in a lot of this writing. I was inspired. I also experienced jealousy. But jealousy can be …
“Christ is contingency,” Christian Wiman asserts in his memoir My Bright Abyss. There was a time that I would have wholeheartedly disagreed with that statement. Christ is certainty! I would have argued. Everything that I had ever stood for, and everything that parents had stood for, had to be true. I’ve believed – even in …
