The Bible is filled with trees—as landmarks, shade, and sources of sustenance; as pictures of life, health, and personhood. Jesus is called “the tree of life.” The Israelites, after being rescued and led to a new life in the Promised Land, chose to trim their life trees into shapes of idols and self-aggrandizement. Invading Assyria… Read More
Music makes the story come alive
In an extended trailer anticipating the latest remake of Les Miserables (coming out in December—can’t wait!), the director and actors talked about a unique technique used in the filming of this musical. Instead of the actors meeting in a studio to record the songs before the movie is shot, and then trying to match up… Read More
I can’t put this book down!
Do you have repeat authors? Do you look for all the books written by an author and read them more than once? These books call you back to visit their created lands and people—like returning to a favorite vacation spot. Two authors on my repeat list are Robin McKinley and Louise Penny. They write in… Read More
Is there a mothering gene?
A young man recently commented about the amount of patience it took to care for an under-the-weather two-year-old fulltime for a few days. He said that he thought women must have some kind of “mothering gene” that surfaced when needed. After a good laugh and composing a facetious list of latent genes that we all… Read More
from Fear to Trust
My mother is terrified of water, and I’ve been afraid of water since I was a toddler and got knocked over by waves at the beach. My parents made sure I went to swimming lessons–over and over again–hoping that learning how to swim would dissolve the dread and replace it with confidence. I became competent,… Read More
Creative Fun
I forgot how satisfying an afternoon of crafting can be until I got the invitation to a baby shower. It included this assignment: Bring a letter of the alphabet for a wall decoration for the baby’s room. It can be made out of anything! Be creative. I was assigned the letter T. So I sat… Read More
Negative or Positive?
What am I going to focus on personally? What am I going to focus on in community? What am I going to focus on nationally? When I think about the Olympics in London this year, will I dwell on the badminton scandal or the U.S. women’s volleyball team who were determined to give each game… Read More
