We pulled a plastic case from the fireplace mantle, our special home for three Monarch butterfly eggs we’d received from a friend. The pencil-tip sized eggs stuck to each milkweed leaf, the Monarch mother’s way of keeping her babies out of harm’s way. We studied each one, all of us wondering how we might…
Last summer our family moved for the tenth time in nearly sixteen years. That’s an average of one move about every year and a half. My six-year old has lived in five different houses. Our dog has traveled from Virginia to California and back. We have lived in apartments, houses, townhomes, and duplexes. In one…
“What kind of robes are we talking?” My 9-year-old’s eyes are wide and earnest as she looks up from her cinnamon roll to ask the question. We’ve found a table in the crowded café, plopped our Bibles and journals down, and waited patiently for our order. Now we begin what we came to do: study…
For five years, we built a life outside of Philadelphia while my husband attended seminary. As those years came to a close, I gave birth to our fourth (a boy), my husband graduated, and we put our house on the market. Our church merged with another and our time there came to an end. When…
Perhaps you work at a job that you don’t find very fulfilling, or you wonder how long you can stay in the place you’re in. Maybe you are looking around for meaning from a spouse, or kids, or the life you thought you’d have. It’s in these unanswered questions where fear takes hold: are we doing something wrong? Do other people feel this way?
One of my nieces used to cup her hands over the enchanting pictures in her storybooks, and carry them invisibly in a finger-cradle to her mother. At that time, my sister-in-law washed dishes by ones and twos in a portable tub, hung laundry to dry, and revolved a simple routine of feeding, delighting, neatening and…
A wonderful painting hangs on the wall of my office. This gift from my lovely wife is a reproduction of Millais’ The Boyhood of Raleigh, and I hope it continues working its way into my heart and imagination. James K. A. Smith summarizes well the story behind this painting (2016, 92): “Sir Walter Raleigh, you…
It’s one thing to read about mountain lions from the comfort of the car, squinting at a faded placard outside of Henry Coe State Park. The plaque made it clear: we were leaving safety. Its topics included “Camping During the Tarantula Migration,” “How To Avoid the Feral Boars,” and “What to Do If You See…
One of my favorite things about summer is when my church begins to get ready for vacation Bible school. It’s something everyone comes together for to create a week-long experience for over one-hundred children. I always sign up for the drama—a play that my friends and I put on for the kids that illustrates, through…
A while back I was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as part of a writing group. I found myself walking through the wardrobe with a writer’s eyes and picking apart Lewis’ amazing prose. It was definitely a different way to read this familiar story. As I was reading I was continually stuck…
Recently, my kids and I took a trip to our local science museum to see a planetarium show and an IMAX film. The films featured opposite corners of our universe: the planetarium show catapulted us through space to the rusty crags of Mars, while the IMAX special plunged us into caves that glittered like forests…
“‘But do you really mean, sir,’ said Peter, ‘that there could be other worlds—all over the place, just round the corner—like that? ‘Nothing is more probable,’ said the Professor.” C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, ch. 5 I have a passion for Other Worlds. I long for them with an eager appetite,…
