Rejoice, from the beginning and to the end and thus forever, He is Risen. Oh, I long to sing the Paschal hymn, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” In the Orthodox world this year, we are one Read More
The Blessings of Small
Goal Setting Trends At this point of the new year, at least 25% of those who set New Year’s Resolutions have quit. By the end of three months, half will have given up on their new goals. One study shows that by year’s end, just over 9% will have kept Read More
Redeeming the Time
I hate winter. As a Texan, this is sacrilege. We’re all supposed to hate the heat (even though we choose to live in this state. Sigh.) The last couple of weeks have been plunging us into autumn, and we’ve already had our first hard freeze. Oh, I loathe it. Anyone Read More
Grateful for It All
I am grateful for the good and the bad and everything in between. What a predictable subject for a post the day before Thanksgiving! Frankly, a post about gratitude during the week of Thanksgiving will get a better response. It is the nature of blogging on the web. And yet, Read More
The Web of Sin: Anger & Procrastination
My mind has been dwelling on sins and habits, especially anger and procrastination. I’ve also had these two stories running in my brain for weeks now. The first was from long ago, a high school project I procrastinated on. The other story occurred just a few weeks ago, an angry Read More
The Purifying Fire of Grief
Grief is everywhere. All around me, someone is sick, someone is dying, someone is grieving. If I had been told that middle age would be so full of loss, I might have called them liars. Instead, grief calls me the liar. All is not well here on planet Earth, and Read More
Structure: The Patterns of Life
Human brains seek out structure — the patterns of life. I looked for paradigms everywhere when I was growing up. It seemed I could concentrate longer on one thing longer than my peers, and it was all about systemizing. I categorized people, events in history, and stories. All the while, Read More
Regret, Self-Pity, & Repentance
There is regret, a place between self-pity and repentance. More often than not lately, I live there in its midst. The grasp of sticky tentacles, clutching at me for dear life. Regret lives in my veins at this point, and it seldom transforms into real repentance. Regret is not just Read More
Confessions of a Couch Potato
A couch potato stands as the modern beacon to sloth. All forms of sloth have a long arc and never truly die. As for laziness, it knows how to hang low and act as if it is defeated and never truly cares. But this is not a defeat but the Read More
Interrupting the Shame Tape
Shame runs tapes in my mind, and they start to play at the oddest moments. On one of the occasions I’ve almost hit a deer on the roads close to home, my oldest son screamed from the back seat, and I heard that tape start to play. His scream was Read More