The New Comer Funeral Home is in a primarily residential area in Rochester, New York. It is a one story, unassuming building and the only indication that its business is death is the word “funeral.” We arrived at the funeral home on a bleak and rainy Friday afternoon for an appointment at 1pm. No one had died. There […]
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Dear Robynn, I enjoyed your “Friday’s with Robynn” post (A Hidden Pearl. January 29,2016). It really resonated with me, so thank you for posting it. It was very thought provoking for me. Earlier this year I experienced a very similar feeling to the one you had having returned from Thailand. My friends and I arrived […]
Read MoreMy husband and I repatriated to this country many years ago. We came from the city of Cairo, Egypt and arrived at Dulles Airport with five children, 26 suitcases, and an Egyptian Siamese cat. It was the sum total of everything we owned. The first two years were excruciating. We didn’t know anything about living […]
Read MoreIt’s difficult to write today, but it would be worse to keep silent. “I don’t want to become a #hashtag. Becoming a #hashtag is a very real fear in my community.” Yesterday at the end of a long and good meeting, a few of of us began talking. The conversation was around race and privilege, […]
Read MoreThe first movie I ever saw was The Sound of Music. I was young – not more than seven years old, and our boarding school had obtained the movie from the Canadian Embassy to show to students. From the first notes of “The Hills are Alive” I was enthralled; at “Do Re Mi” I was smitten; […]
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“Oh, for God’s sake…get a life, will you?”–William Shatner Connor left nearly a month ago to return to the University of British Columbia. As he and Lowell pulled away from the house I felt the bottle of grief shaken within me lose its scarcely screwed on lid. Before I knew it I was drenched, […]
Read MoreOur first task in approaching Another people Another culture Another religion Is to take off our shoes For the place we are approaching is holy Else we find ourselves Treading on another’s dreams More serious still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival. We have to try to sit where they sit, […]
Read MoreReaders, my mom and dad were in the country of Pakistan and raised five of us in that context. Yesterday on A Life Overseas my mom shared a poignant story on children, choices, and ultimately learning to trust God with our kids. Would you join us there? I have included the beginning of the piece […]
Read Morewhen Jesus proclaimed, “This is my body, broken for you,” it makes me wonder if in some sense Jesus himself had to come to grips with his own body and its impending brokenness. He was about to endure the profound breaking of his own body. He leans into it and he accepts it. That has implications for me accepting my own body and my own brokenness.
Read MoreGeorge was one of those guys that I saw early morning. As I would wander up Tremont Street from the Park Street T Station he would be setting up in front of the Granary Burying Ground. This cemetery is Boston’s third oldest cemetery and the final earthly resting place for the likes of Samuel Adams, […]
Read MoreOur public world is not the way to define our relationship with God. Who we are is defined when no one is looking. –Jennie Allen “Give your pen to me” he says. I slowly hand it over, unsure as to whether I really want to. He is gentle with me, but daily I […]
Read MoreLove is willing to step into the places that feel uncertain, awkward, and vulnerable for the great cause of unity and reconciliation.
Read MoreHis eyes are so much like his mom’s that I am startled. He nestles into my shoulder, knowing that I’m not his mom, but that somehow – I am safe. I stare and stare and I have no concept of time. I realize that I could stare at this wonder all day. This wonder is […]
Read MoreWhen my husband was little, his mom looked at her boys (four at the time) and said: “Pick your cake and stick with it!” So each of them picked a favorite cake and every year, that was the cake they had on their birthdays. It was a wise move for a woman who had four boys […]
Read MoreThe movie A Beautiful Mind is based on the story of a brilliant mathematician, John Nash. Nash is as arrogant as he is brilliant, but that changes as he goes through an excruciating process of being diagnosed as a schizophrenic. The mind that served him so well betrays him and he is left wondering what […]
Read MoreAs I step into church, I breathe in pungent, sweet incense. I can see smoke rise in front of evening shadows on the wall. Fading light reflects off of gold and burgundy icons. I take a deep breath and I breathe in holy. I breathe it in, my whole being alive to incense and all that accompanies […]
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One of the sweet daily habits of our marriage is that Lowell makes the bed. When we first got married and he was still dew eyed and love drunk he asked me what the one household task that I least liked was. I didn’t hesitate. I hate making the bed. I love a made bed […]
Read More“I’ve always been a good girl.” I couldn’t help overhearing the woman at the table next to me. I was sitting outside at a coffee shop. Sound carries, and though I had no intention of eavesdropping, the phrase stuck with me. Her voice shook slightly and I could hear the angst. I thought about all […]
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