Christmas Present The flame hisses to life when I hold the flickering match to its base. The light shines through the green glass of the pine-scented candle. I shake the match, run it under a quick stream of cold water. It sits, black and burnt, reduced to quiet. I toss it into the trash receptacle […]
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Amazon Giftcard Giveaway
I laughed.I cried.It exceeded my expectations. Years ago, my aunt introduced us to the horrible Herdmans and the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She lent us the book and the next year we watched the 1983 film adaptation. When the email landed in my inbox a month or so ago with an invitation to preview this […]
The Gift of Delight at Christmas
I’m delighted to welcome my friend, Allison Byxbe, to be here with us today ~ Allison invited me to share in a conversation about the Gift of Delight for her Inky Collective this month. I was delighted to do this! We had a fun and dare I say, delightful conversation? 🙂 Let’s jump back for […]
Gifts, Hope, Bells, Green, Star
GIFTS December 1, 2023🎁🎀🎄 Right here.Two of the very best gifts to ever happen to me.And as funny as the “puppies” are, I don’t mean Jackie and Theodore. 😄😉It’s true. Childcare is demanding and exhausting and needy.It revealed so much in me that I really hated coming face to face with.Sad truth.If I could get […]
Journey To Bethlehem Movie Tickets Giveaway
Musicals. Live Theater. Movies. Stories.I love these works of creativity, this method of bringing messages, a way of sharing words.There are many genres or storylines that aren’t for me or don’t resonate.But for the many that don’t, other productions, do. For the ones where I am not the captive audience or ideal reader, other people […]
We Are Messengers
Our in-the-flesh experience begins suddenly. The world opens to us bright and cold and startling. We wail and blink, stunned by the suddenness, the shifting from warmth and comfort of a watery womb to an overstimulating awareness and newness. Lungs gasp air and breath pumps in, out, in, out. Legs and arms thrash and pump […]
Casting Your Character
“It’s ready!” the sweet barista sets the mug in front of me. Whip settles on the foam and caramel drizzle runs ribbons disappearing into the cinnamon latte depths. I express my gratitude, smile, reach toward the warm mug. I’m ready too. I lean in, toward the latte, toward conversation. Flickers from the gas fireplace combine with Christmas […]
The Three-Fold Gift of Waiting
The calendar days do have to creep. Agonizingly.They tick along as if they have all day, meandering, ambling, lethargic at best.I press my nose against windowglass, focus on the snowflakes falling in flutters. This was the part of anticipation I didn’t appreciate. It meant awaiting, abiding, attending.As a child, the culmination of Christmas couldn’t come quickly enough. […]
Makers Are Chance Takers
Scooping the dough from the bowl, my hands shape it into a ball, smoothing, rounding, rolling. Flour dust hovers as I sift it across the silicone pastry mat. I pat. Flatten the ball into a disc, reach for my french rolling pin. The rolling pin, made by artisans in India, sold by Mercy House, with […]
Standing Steady
The branches bob, nod, rustle. Snow lays in powdered blankets accentuating green needles. Pinecones poke their heads above this winter coat. The pines spread their graceful skirts along the snowy path. A squirrel scampers around the trunk and a quick flash of cardinal red appears above our heads. In winter landscape or summer bloom, evergreens […]
Cradling Togetherness
It beckons. Draws with magnetic pull. Urges togetherness. Lights twinkle soft and pink mixes together with gold, silver, cream, amber. We gather in the room. We bring books and knitting and hazelnut coffee laced with cream. Miss Jackie sits outside, ears perked, eyes peering in the window. We grin at her, sip coffee, gaze at […]
Walk to the Waiting Manger
With a scraping, a scuffling, a bit of entanglement my son wrestles my Christmas tree down the attic stairway ladder. The fir branches engulf him, teetering one way and another. They poke from the flimsy plastic enshrouding them. Thanking my son profusely for his grunt work, I begin circling our tree, straightening branches, fluffing fake […]
Glory Through All Ages
God our Father ~Glory to you for sending your Son -the newborn King- to earth for us.Glory to you this Christmas.Long ages after his newborn cry split the sky.Glory through all ages. The Great I AmWho is and wasAnd evermore and always isAnd is to come. The Rock of all Ages,Come through the ages,For every […]
Helpful, Hopeful, Beautiful
My criteria for who and what and where I spend my time online and on social media has always held certain parameters. I named it more specifically in this way. What I’m following must be helpful, hopeful, or beautiful. We become consumed by what we consume. Every so often I reassess. What once was helpful […]
Wonders of His Love
Here’s the soundtrack I hope is playing when I exit earthside and enter heaven. I hope the instruments of heaven and the choir of voices are all in full chorus of “the Wonders of His Love” like the joyful and compelling rendition by Casting Crowns. What better greeting than wondering at His love as one […]
Keep At It
To all the creators and dreamers and makers and vulnerable people showing up to share their work, words, music. {and this is all of us, anyone breathing, because we all create in some way, all made to produce art of a myriad of types by our Creator} • A Word For You • Keep at […]
Looking For Lovely and Creating a List
I don’t want to know Jesus only for what He can do for me. I want to know Jesus because of what He has already done for me. Emmanuel. God with us. Luke 7:16-17 ~“Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, “A mighty prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited […]