How can you reduce holiday stress?
It is sunny and 54 degrees here in Chicago today, which is lovely. Except that it really doesn't feel like December, and it's making me deny reality: Christmas is a little over three weeks away, [...]
Excavating Beauty: what lies beneath the surface?
I never really liked the beige Berber carpet in the family room. When we moved in two decades ago, though, we figured we’d eventually update the room, with its very '80s wall of mirrors and [...]
Lead with your ears
Today we begin our 2021 Lenten series. Let's talk about this, the strangest Lenten season ever, and walk through it together. What practices do you want to engage? What do you want to let go [...]
Haven’t we given up enough already? Some thoughts on Lent
About a year ago, I remember feeling a bit of mild panic as I took the last container of Clorox Wipes from a now empty shelf in Target. Something big was going on. We had [...]
Build a bigger table
I’m a planner by nature. I live in the future, where things are bright because I’ve planned every detail. So usually by now I have begun making lists, planning how to cook the turkey. Brining [...]
Beef stew as self-care: winter blues help for empty nesters
This is the first in an occasional series on empty nesting, or as my friend Tim likes to call it, spacious nesting. Outside, the soft pewter sky of winter afternoon spits down a thin, bitter [...]
The surprising gift of silence
This is a loud season, full of good busy and hard questions, for most of us. Even as we strive for simplicity, we see others for whom "simplicity" is not a choice but their only [...]
Advent: Coming of the King of Peace
This Advent, gather with us in this space. Take a moment to breathe, to read very short reflections, to consider the ties between this ancient tradition and the challenges and joys of our current situation. [...]
The surprising secret to experiencing abundance
We all long for it: the abundant life. I don't know about you, but I stand against a scarcity mentality steeped in fear. I want to believe that I have more than enough, even when [...]
Between “back to school” and “holiday hectic”–a reprieve
My connecting flight (which I make by only 10 minutes) takes me over the Grand Canyon at sunset. I’m relieved to be on the plane, blown away by the beauty, and suddenly sad for the [...]