What is all this Juice and Joy?

Yesterday I sat on the front lawn with my twin girls and we had a go at making dandelion chains. We twisted the green stems into loose knots, snapped and tugged, soft yellow heads bobbing. I watched my daughter’s fingers hook weeds, fumble and find, fascinated by her determination, comforted by her small body next [...]

The Appalling Strangeness

It is Holy Thursday. The day Jesus ate the Seder meal with his apostles, washed their feet, then walked through the Kidron Valley to a familiar spot on the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane. The Mount of Olives is aptly named for the many olive trees that grace its western slope. They are beautiful, knotted, twisted. [...]

The Unexpected Holy

Sometimes the holy catches us unaware, makes the common sacred, gives us joy in our mourning. Fresh snow fell during the night, leaving a soft layer of white on the valley floor. We piled into the car and drove to an old red brick chapel where the sun glinted off newly-shoveled walks and a bluebird [...]

The Mountain Remains Still

It is 8:15 PM, my husband is out of town, three glasses of carnations are drinking colored water on the windowsill – part of a science fair project that needed observation and photographing fifteen minutes ago. I’m in the middle of bathing two rowdy boys who just chewed up my favorite taper candle, and my [...]

Poor as I am

It’s a simple tradition. We do it for the children. But after all the unwrapping of Christmas morning, it is the ritual I am still thinking about. For weeks we worked slowly to fill a manger. Each time the children performed an act of kindness, made someone’s bed, cleared the table, let a sibling have [...]

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