The winter night brings a chill and so I plod across our backyard through leaves I meant to rake weeks ago, coming to a stop beside the blazing fire filled with boxes, papers, wrappings and scribbles whose remnants turn to molten ash before my eyes. I...
It’s Christmas Eve. All is calm, all is bright. I’m snuggled up with our dog, Sam, in a cozy room full of beloved family members napping. Through the almost floor-to-ceiling windows, a stand of trees reaches high into the sky, their branches gnarled and bare,...
In my Eastern Orthodox church, it is a traditional practice to fast during Advent. I can’t think of anything better to underscore for my children the idea of anticipation, and waiting for the birth of Christ. But by December 23, we are all getting kind of...
I’ve been teetering between the two lines of loving or hating social media. Social media can be a great thing. It’s such a wonderful way to connect and get a glimpse into peoples lives but it also can be too much shouting of opinions, nonsense...
Advent - the Christmas season - is my favorite time of year. Mostly because I am a storyteller, and this is the greatest Story ever told. I am in a daze of wonder for the whole of December, star-stricken by the Divine humanity. Sometimes I write about Mary,...
The popular Christmas story "The Gift of the Magi" tells the tale of Jim and Della, a couple who love each other deeply but don't have any extra money to buy each other Christmas gifts. Secretly, each decides to sell their most prized possession in...
This Christmas, your house or yard may be decked out with Santa and his reindeer, but do you know the "man behind the myth?" Whether or not you "do Santa" in your house, Saint Nicholas himself is a guy worth getting to know! St. Nicholas or "Santa"...
I’ve lost two babes at two different times in the days before Christmas. And so I revel in the humanity of the players. I empathize with young Mary, of course. I keep thinking of her physical feelings, her emotions at being a first-time mother. Closing my eyes...
I grew up with a desire for marriage and children. I had names for four future children by the age of ten. But our expectations and realities do not always match--particularly in the area of fertility. My community is comprised of women with more children than...
Mimi offered to babysit on Saturday. When Mimi offers to babysit, we say, “Yes, please!” and high tail it out of the house. For years I’ve had this fantasy that once we moved home, we would go back to all the places I loved as a...