Window Thinking
Rob Bell on The RobCast 8.19.18: ….there is this paradox. This tension. This polarity that we all carry around between what we can control, and what we can’t. That which, when our hand is on the wheel, we can actually steer. And that which exists outside of our power, will, and dominion. That which is simply …
A trip to Zambia, house hunting in Alaska, and a new puppy. Facebook has been serving me some life-changing “on this day” memories. Six years ago David and I flew to Anchorage to find a house to rent. I was sooooo grumpy that weekend. David likes to remind me that just 10 months earlier I …
….It’s like how perennial plants seem to die in the winter, but really, they’re just waiting till everything is alright again. Maybe it’s not such a surprise that there’s strength in the cold. Maybe sometimes the strongest thing of all is knowing that one day you’ll be all right again, and waiting and waiting until …
I listened to a couple podcasts this past week with fabulous book talk for summer reading: Jen Hatmaker’s For The Love of Summer podcast: You, A Book, And A Beach: Must-Have Summer reads from the Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Anne Bogel Just The Right Book Podcast with Roxanne Coady: Roxanne’s 22 Must-Read Books for the Summer I …
“Men,” said Mr. Kyle, “people have been trying to understand dogs ever since the beginning of time. One never knows what they’ll do. You can read every day where a dog saved the life of a drowning child, or lay down his life for his master. Some people call this loyalty. I don’t. I may …
It’s a scary thing to learn you have cancer and I have wondered every day since how this could have possibly happened to me. A gut punch landed when I opened my Facebook feed a few days ago and saw beloved Anchorage cross country skier Kikkan Randall had posted a statement that she’s in treatment …
The Thai Navy SEALS posted the announcement on their Facebook page a couple days ago and it landed in a headline on the front page of our paper: “We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out of the cave.” Miracle. Science. Or …
On the day when The weight deadens On your shoulders And you stumble, May the clay dance To balance you……. It was a grey Monday here. There have been an awful lot of grey days here this summer. But this Monday hung particularly heavy. I worked outside much of the day – digging, digging, digging. …
Despite all his flaws, Marley had given us a gift that no amount of money could buy. He gave us the gift of total, complete love. He taught us how to give it and how to accept it. Oh Marley. A dog like no other, and yet so very much like a dog we know …
Summer Solstice in Anchorage means 4:21a sunrise today and 11:43p sunset. It never does get dark. Alas…..we make the turn here.
…..Can you feel the hearts of the children? Aching for home, for something of their very own Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to, But hope for a better day ….. Kurt Bestor | The Prayer of the Children
…..Mr. Jones and this Circle of Nine mixed magic and science together. ____ T’Challa turned to the sound of loud voices…All three of them had one thing in common: they did not have kind eyes, something his father said to always look for in a person. So Late to the party!! I read this one …
Whatever it is for you in your life, your work – whatever your next step is, my prayer for you is that you do not experience hopelessness because there is always another step to take. My hope and prayer for you is that you are listening to whatever that whisper or shout or nudge or …
Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process…Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape…not every bend does. Sometimes the surprise is the opposite one; you are presented with exactly the same sort of country you thought you had left behind …
I have been running again. Long distances. Often. The last time I ran like this was (also the first time) in Spring 2016, and I was training for a July half marathon. I was also enrolled in a writing class that spring and had recently written <500 words on a dandelion so, as my feet …
All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still “about to be”. Surprised By Joy was assigned reading in one of my college classes. (the class on C.S. Lewis in fact) I didn’t much care for it then. I clearly had not yet …
A couple weeks ago I spotted this in my twitter feed: Joy. It’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. Not the Jesus Others You stuff I learned in childhood church school and have long since discarded as weird and woefully incomplete. Not the happy face “joy” that refuses to also hold space for the fear …
There is really nothing you must be and there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have and there is nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However, it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains, the earth gets wet. My AP English teacher …
What happens when refugee youth are empowered with vocational skills and given tools to start their own businesses? They become productive, self-reliant, and are in position to support their families. And Given Tools To Start Their Own Businesses. In my Twitter feed today I saw this story from World Vision International about four young entrepreneurs thriving in …
How should one act when consequences are uncertain? Our family watched The Post a couple weekends ago. And then All The Presidents Men. And that prompted several us to read (reread) Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by the always excellent Steve Sheinkin. I’d gotten most of the way …
What is a person to do, I asked, when their obligations to their family conflict with other obligations –to friends, to society, to themselves?
“People love to say, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” What they don’t say is, “And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.” That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing. I listened to …
Seven weeks short of 13 years since the car accident that changed my life >> I stopped by the Brain Injury Association of Alaska this morning to see what they’ve got going on. Awhile back a friend suggested that I might find a place to contribute there – tapping my background in nonprofit communication work, …
Ramona had never had a girl best friend, only Howie, and now that they were in the fourth grade they did not play together as often as they used to. Howie was always banging around with a hammer, building things. Ramona used to enjoy this, too, but lately, as her mother said, she was at …