Sing Her to Sleep

    The gentle summer day my friend made her journey from home to hospice was marked by a little parade of loved ones. As the medics carried her to the ambulance, her sisters, husband, and daughter filed out into the sunshine behind her, and for reasons I cannot...
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For the Love of a Worm

    It has been almost thirty years since I met Derek, but I can still hear his mother’s words echoing in my mind. “This is Derek,” she said as her cherubic looking toddler looked up at me, “He’ll be trouble.” I wondered, in that moment, how a mother could choose to...
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Momentary Friends

    I had spent the night in an airport on a ten-hour layover, not quite as awful as it sounds but no rival for the much-anticipated comfort of my own home. Bleary-eyed as we took off at 7 AM—no one on the flight was what my father would have called “bright-eyed and...
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Flee to the Cross

  The little girl broke free from her parents and made a beeline for the foot of the Cross. She couldn’t have been more than four years old, but she clearly knew where she wanted to be. Standing in the chamber in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, while the Greek...
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Broken Resolutions

January is my least favorite month, followed closely by February. In fact, the only reason I dislike them in that order is because in January there is still February to endure. I have never liked the cold of winter, the inconvenience of snow, and the long wait for the sprouting...
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Where Women Fear to Tread

  There is a quote going around the internet attributed to Margaret Atwood, which says, “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” It is an easy enough assertion for the pro-life movement to dismiss, coming as it does from the...
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Swords to Plowshares

    As I write, America is reeling from yet another mass shooting. My social media has been overflowing with disturbing images—e.g., a dump truck emptying piles of waste labeled “thoughts and prayers”—along with loud calls for more gun control and equally loud calls to...
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Little Girls in Older Bodies

  At the altar rail to receive Communion, she knelt, with intention that might not have been so obvious a decade or two ago. Looking up at me, she held out her hands, and then wiggled her fingers to show off her sparkly new manicure. She was a grandmother, but in that moment...
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Insurance that Would Benefit Us All

  My eldest son has moved from having a job into the world of having a career. At some point, we asked him about his benefits package, as he is fast approaching an age when he will need to provide his own insurance plan. He assured us that he has medical insurance with all...
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Swords to Plowshares

    As I write, America is reeling from yet another mass shooting. My social media has been overflowing with disturbing images—e.g., a dump truck emptying piles of waste labeled “thoughts and prayers”—along with loud calls for more gun control and equally loud calls to...
Read More →