Keep Watch (This is Advent)
This year, the women's ministry at my Pennsylvania church published an Advent devotional with written reflections from twenty-nine of our parish women. I was honored to write a reflection for the first Sunday of Advent, and I am so glad to be able to share it here, too. The following piece appears in Behold, God's Promises, an Advent...
These Farmhouse Bookshelves: Advent Favorites
Ready or not the seasons are shifting. Of course, we know in our heads that all time moves at the same speed, but our hearts simply will go on beating to some other, more mysterious, rhythm. Sometimes the gap between those two experiences of time feels like a chasm. We stand on the edge, our hearts out of sync with the calendar, and we...
The Stones Will Cry Out
Earlier this week, I drove the curling, twisting country roads between my house and my youngest boy’s school. We carpool with neighbors, and I make that same drive on most afternoons. It is twelve minutes, precisely. Twelve minutes of fieldstone farmhouses, enormous red barns, undulating fields, and one silvery, meandering brook. I see...
Behold Our King
His feet are clay. As has ever been true of kings. Some might say there is nothing in this to grieve. Nothing to cause fear. Certainly no reason for surprise. What was true of Daniel’s king, was true of David, and true of Solomon, too. Has, in fact, been true of every man or woman to whom we have bowed or pledged our allegiance. But I...
In Times Like These, Plant a Tree
We planted a tree on Friday. It is a red oak tree, and we planted it for Shawn. I’d ordered it in June for fall planting. It arrived at the nursery weeks ago, but somehow I never received the message. I found out it was ready only a few days before my family, the family I so rarely see, came to stay. We have two shovels. My husband,...
These Farmhouse Bookshelves (How To Slow Time Edition)
(this post contains affiliate links) September began with a back-to-school, double-birthday, two-nights-in-hospital swirl. Our only option, once we had emerged on the other side of all that, was to slow time down. Way down. How does one do that, you ask? By wasting it, of course. Stop rushing. Sit still. Stare out of a nearby window....
