I haven’t spent much of this month being thankful for things, but rather than bombard you all with a list of what I appreciate this year, I thought I would give this space over to a different writer who penned the following lyrics: Continue reading
When my husband told me that our manager wanted to have an unplanned meeting with us (after which we could leave work early), I knew something was wrong. Unplanned meetings are rarely a positive sign, right? So it came as no surprise that she had bad news for us. That news? Our contract was ending early, and we would have a month left at our current positions. Continue reading
I visited an Anglican church for the first time on Sunday. Having grown up in a charismatic, evangelical household, it was a very different experience than what I am used to, but I thoroughly enjoyed the liturgy. There is so much beauty in traditions that we easily forego in favor of “contemporary” services. However, that’s not what I wanted to write about today, specifically. Rather, I want to share a prayer that we read as a congregation, a prayer for artists. I am not sure who originally penned it, and I copied the text directly from the communique, including punctuation, although I added a few Oxford commas because I couldn’t help myself. Continue reading
Joy.
They live in a mystery, these people live in a mystery.
It’s joy that holds them up.
That was what mattered. It was joy that held them up, no matter if the wings grew out of their backs or were somehow held on with buckles and clamps.
Stephen King, The Talisman Continue reading
This will probably be the only post that goes up on here today. Emotionally, I have very little to give to writing following the previous days’ mucking through Facebook and their inattention to sex trafficking on their site. Continue reading
Yesterday, I joined my friends Liz and Slay (and many others!) in drawing attention to a Facebook community page for Kolkata’s infamous Sonagachi red-light district. The issue, at first, was that this page hosted sexually explicit images–many of minors. Liz reported the page and asked her friends to join her in reporting. And then something unexpected happened. Continue reading
Picture a dazzling spring day in the Pacific Northwest. In a small classroom at a Christian college, five senior English majors sit in a semi-circle, attentively listening to their professor as she elaborates on medieval theology. The course? Chaucer and his contemporaries.
This was my last English class in undergrad, and I remember it well. Not only were Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales entertaining, but the history surrounding his tales is remarkable.
We studied the Crusades, of course, and we studied contemporary theology. After all, the church had a lot of influence in Chaucer’s society, so he slipped in all kinds of references to Christian living and Augustinian thought. Continue reading
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Content wise, this is a wonderful book–life changing even. However, I know that the style that Ann Voskamp uses won’t resonate with all readers–could even turn some people off by it–so that’s why I dropped a star. Continue reading
We all know the story. There were four children named Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy who were sent to live in the country in a large manor. The youngest, Lucy, stumbles upon a magic wardrobe that opens into a strange land blanketed with snow that is called Narnia. She returns, tells her siblings, and none of them believe her. Continue reading
“Eucharist [thanksgiving] is the state of the perfect man. Eucharist is the life of paradise. Eucharist is the only full and real response of man to God’s creation, redemption, and gift of heaven.”
-Alexander Schmemann Continue reading
Ellayne Shaw 