Reading

Your fate is not yet sealed. Even in the darkest night, a star will shine, a bell will chime, a path will be revealed. I have mixed feelings about this middle grade fiction, but overall, I thought it worked okay. It is a story with distinct parts, I would have liked more of some and …

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” I’ve been thinking about time. And the lessons found therein. …

Hey! Unto you a child is born! An annual read for many of the childhoods I can remember.

“Daniel, he said. I would have you follow me. Master!….I will fight for you to the end!. My loyal friend, he said, I would ask something much harder than that. Would you love for me to the end?   “We can never know,” Simon answered slowly. “God hides the future from man’s eyes. We are …

“Hello,” I tried again. “Welcome to home. My name is Morning Girl. My mother is She Wins the Race. My father is Speaks to Birds. My brother is Star boy. We will feed you and introduce you to everyone.”  Generosity of Native American spirit meets Columbus to horrifying end.

“We are always within the eye of the Creator,” he said. “Wherever we look, we will find that each is connected to the other. Only those who live with the winter in their hearts cannot see those connections.”  “….Keep the summer in your heart.”

Sees-the-Wind held up an arrow in both hands. He broke off the arrowhead and dropped into the pouch at his side. Then he placed the arrow over the door to the Meetinghouse, balancing it on the two nails. “This arrow,” said Sees-the-Wind as Robert Nisbet translated his words into English, “is our mark. It will …

“Why did you do all this for me?” he asked. “I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.” “You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.” A few weeks ago I discovered that my 7th grader doesn’t know the story of Charlotte’s Web!! And so I went …

It’s nothing new, Lily. They’ve been using the WASP to do dirty work since the program started. Testing planes that aren’t fit to fly. ‘ If a girl can do it, so can a man.’ That should be the army’s new motto. # Because I don’t feel Negro any more than I feel white. I’m …

Hope and despair are not opposites. They are cut from the very same cloth, made from the very same material, shaped from the very same circumstances. Every life finds itself forced to choose one from the other, one day at a time, one circumstance after another. # By losing everything, we come to the realization …

“But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder.” For now they saw something not only behind the wave but behind the sun. They could not have seen even the sun …

If God speaks anywhere, it is into our personal lives that he speaks. A Crazy, Holy Grace is a solid compilation of my favorite Buechner themes.

While we may wish for a clear, perspicuous text, that’s not what God gave us. Instead, God gave us a cacophony of vices and perspectives, all in conversation with one another, representing the breadth and depth of the human experience in all its complexities and contradictions. ** In the Bible, wisdom is rarely presented as …

….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 …

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 …

…..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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …