Happy New Year! We're on the cusp of change, one of my favorite places to be. While turning the calendar to 2021 won't miraculously bring peace or healing, I do love fresh starts and new beginnings. So I pray this new year will bring true goodness and lasting joy in the days and weeks to come. Because I'm a lover of New Year's, I always want to spend this time in prayer and reflection. Like many of you, I'm craving connection and conversation in the midst of life at home. So as I prepared for what January might bring, I dreamt up the idea of a virtual retreat. Epiphany: A New Year's Retreat will come to you in the comfort of your own home from January 7-10, 2021. Find out more here. Together we’ll explore the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew: surprising dreams, unexpected visitors, turbulent times, and life-changing callings. These Scripture stories will come alive in new ways as we bring them to prayer, reflecting on our own lives, questions, and challenges. The … [Read more...] about let’s retreat together for Epiphany
Seasons of Church & Home
Here, Too: the new Lent book
I remember where I was sitting when I got the idea. In the middle of a writing workshop on time and place in memoir. How to deal with challenges of chronology and context. As often happens, my mind leapt from the question at hand to a brand-new idea. What about a book on the times and places that God meets us? I mentally wandered away the class for fifteen minutes, scribbling in the back of my notebook. Metaphors and memories, stories from Scripture and stories from our lives. On the road. In the desert. At home. In the storms. I scanned the list, satisfied. Something there, for sure. But I remembered my own time and place, turned back to the teacher, closed the notebook, and forgot all about it. Until Jenna and I got to talking about Lent last year. Thanks to the work of a team of beautiful writers and a brilliant designer, that book is now brought to life. Here, Too: Where We Meet God is the Blessed Is She Lent book for 2020. A journey through seven places … [Read more...] about Here, Too: the new Lent book
looking back, looking forward
I have no shame in confessing: I love New Year's. It's a holiday that many love to hate, artificial or over-hyped. But I adore looking back and looking forward, pondering what was and planning for what might be. (I also love champagne, resolutions, countdowns, goofy party hats, and cheesy crowd songs at midnight. So this time of year is my JAM.) As part of my New Year's affection, I will read any top-10 round-up. Movies I didn't see, books I didn't read, sports I didn't follow? Who cares. I love a good best-of. So for my own amusement, I pulled together a review of the most-read posts on Mothering Spirit in 2019. But first: a preview of what's new for 2020 Big changes are on the horizon. A new baby due in March, and lots of shifting our lives around to make room for him. As our family grows, I've been deep in discernment. How can I keep making time for the writing I love while still caring for the family that also calls me? That's where you come in. In … [Read more...] about looking back, looking forward
the whole story
The told story is not the whole story. We tend to grasp onto moments as the whole. In a culture obsessed with tiny tweets and shiny surfaces, it's easier to outrage or comfort ourselves with sound bytes that echo the thoughts between our ears, daily dulling our curiosity. We take the smallest sliver for the encompassing everything. But look closer. Deeper. Longer. What you see or hear or read is never the whole story. We hear this exhortation to empathy often now, in our dealings with loved ones and strangers alike. To remember that so much hides below the surface, that you never know the depths of another's struggles. But every story holds this same mystery. Take one small line from Scripture. Did you ever notice that Mary and Elizabeth spent a whole trimester together? The Visitation was not a mere afternoon or a split second of joy. It lasted three long months. Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. (Luke 1:56) A single … [Read more...] about the whole story
