“TANSTAAFL,” the text read. That crazy duck quack my husband has on his phone announcing incoming texts sometimes drives me crazy. At almost 1:00 a.m., it’s enough for a heart attack. “What is it?” I ask, a breathless panic sounded in my voice. The phone is already in his hand. He is sitting on the […]
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“What?” he asks. Only it’s not so much a question as a two-year-old’s bold reaction to just about everything. His forehead draws together, his questioning mouth opens and his head jerks around. His spreads his legs. His little man hand stretches upright like a policeman stopping traffic. “What?” “Wait for me.” “What?” My kids did […]
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“We are ill prepared for living here,” I told my husband on the third day of a power outage. He’d been shoveling the driveway, bringing wood into the fireplace and fire burning stove, and generally working like a crazy man to keep us safe and warm in a cold dark house. When we first arrived […]
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“And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.” 1 Sam. 5:3 ESV Snow is falling thick outside our Virginia home. It is beautiful in the way […]
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The last week of December always feels a little like an in-between to me. It’s between holidays, months and years. Akin to adolescent years, somewhere between child and teenager, life has a lot of uncomfortable in-betweens, like the “uberty” one of my young nieces recently admitted to being in. “Uberty” is not a good […]
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In the sweat and grime of one contraction bursting upon another, I concentrated on a child yet unknown, but one already knit with my own heart. Birth in that moment was all about bringing into a hospital room a living breathing little being. The focus was laser pointed on a baby, and nothing else mattered. […]
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I’ve had Christmases without snow, gifts scarce, and family missing, but I’ve never had one without Handel’s Messiah filling my airwaves. When I think of Christmas glory, it is always with a chorus’ swell and movement. “And the glory, the glory of the Lord…” From childhood, words I read in my Bible which are part […]
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My son’s eyes sparkled like sun kissed waters when he pulled a bright red package from under the tree. His little hands reverently held the wrapped box, its smashed bow wobbled, as if ready to lean over the edge and run away. He looked my way. Suddenly shy, my six-year-old hesitated, a worried brow […]
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“And it came to pass in those days” Luke 2:1, “that there went out a decree from Caesar Augstus that all the world should be taxed.” (KJV) What were “those days?” If your feet walked the dust of then, where would they take you? Why after years of prophecy was the time ripe in Bethlehem […]
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I learned to really appreciate this American tradition in a place where it was not celebrated. Our first years we felt alone without family. We joined with fellow North Americans, friends from the same background, others who knew its tradition. Uniquely cultural, Thanksgiving Day grew to include neighbors, friends and curiously interested acquaintances. We astounded […]
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