Last weekend, Adam went camping with his dad for the first time.  And the most wonderful thing happened: he had a blast. Living with autism, there are things we parents just get used to not being able to do with our children.  We stand in groups of parents who are chattering about all the things […]

Summer makes me long for timelessness. By that I mean both the sensation of being tied to no particular time or schedule and, simply, eternity. On summer weekends, we often linger by the neighborhood pool in the evenings, talking and laughing with good friends while our children and their children splash and swim, the sounds […]

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.~ Proverbs 25:11 Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ~Ephesians 4:29 You know, words don’t really come easily to any of us. But in […]

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9). ~the apostle Paul, self-proclaimed “the worst of sinners” in his first letter to Timothy I really hate it […]

Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. ~Dallas Willard, as quoted in The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith, 183 Sometimes I feel like a horrible mother. These are the days when I truly realize the power of grace, and these are the days when my thanksgiving for it is most earnest. Sometimes I feel […]

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher. ~Temple Grandin Mrs. Nesbitt used to throw gum at me during class, her lips curling up in a wide smile that erupted with laughter that sounded half-crazy.  I was always the third child in my family to sit under my teachers’ tutelage, and Mrs. Nesbitt […]

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And […]

There are times, when if I had those red shoes, I’d smack the heels together until my feet hurt. The longing for home aches deep, a hunger that won’t go away.  I’m not talking about the home I live in here that still stands (praise God) 100 feet—if that—from utter devastation.  I’m talking about the […]

For me, digging in the dirt is breathing deeply. It is a hundred different things at once, and among them freedom, imagination, fragrance, heat. This time of year, I’d rather be outside than in.  The hours out there run away on the breeze, and it returns bringing me peace and joy and conversations with God.  […]

Ocracoke is a beautiful island, and our life here for the last week has been like a dream. This is my view, sitting on the deck, where today writing follows lectio divina.  On at least one evening, I finished the day in this spot, as the last evidence of the dying sun melted into the […]