What sound does hope make when it dies?

Does anyone else remember those “magic eye” books and posters? The ones that, if you stared long enough or used a certain position to view it, you could see whatever picture was hidden behind the abstract design. They were quite popular when I was younger. Can I let you in on a secret? Though sometimes […]

Changing the belief to live the story

This past Sunday was Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of the Christian Lord. As a storyteller, I have always been fascinated with how the story on Saturday played out. On Friday, the hope that Jesus’ followers and disciples had was dead. Grief was heavy. A story that they had hoped would be everlasting had […]

Rabble-Rouser

For most of the Christian world, we are in the midst of what is known as Holy Week. It is the week that begins with Palm Sunday and culminates with Easter. It commemorates the last week in the life of Jesus. But the Holy Week depicted in the Bible wasn’t a celebration. It was a […]

Saying goodbye at the Rainbow Bridge

Early this morning, an angel was formed. Our beloved cat, Her Royal Highness the Princess Twixx Buttercup, crossed the rainbow bridge into the unknown. Affectionately known as Mama Cat, Her Royal Pain in the Butt-ness, Twixxiekins, Princesa, Chunker-butt, Nurse Twixxie and a plethora of other random names, Twixx came into our lives in the summer […]

Beautiful messes

Many of us have been called labels instead of names. Self-centered. Narcissist. Radical. Socialist. Sinner. Dumb ass. Stupid. Selfish. Crazy. We carry these labels, shouldering them alongside the weight of all that we are, all that we need to do, all that we have to be. Sometimes, we carry so much weight and have so […]

Love thine enemy

It is super hard to be nice to people who are mean to us. Ask any person who works in customer service or retail and they will tell you so, since they are expected to be friendly even as anger and vitriol and snide comments are thrown their way. Between the entitlement stories and the […]

Blessed are….

In my fantastical adventurous Portals Series, there is an enemy to magic. It is not dark magic, for even sorcery has a place in my fictionalized world of portals and realms even as some look down their nose at it. It is rather an ideal, an entity called evil. Evil is twisted, created from the […]

Recognition

This past Sunday, the tables in the narthex of one of the local churches in my little swath of the Midwest were full of people enjoying camaraderie and some scrumptious cheesecake and coffees. They all had something in common…. they all had volunteered to make this little swath of the Midwest a better place for […]

Is it lawful to do good?

“Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?” Luke 6:9 (NRSV) In the Christian Bible, Jesus spoke this after being questioned why he was healing a man on the day of rest. Those questioning him […]