I first prayed the prayer that is changing my life under the fluorescent lights of a Walmart return line…

On my sister’s birthday, I asked for rainbows. It was a kaleidoscopic weather day, in which the clouds move faster than your racing heart and the sun and darkness shift like smoke and the rain falls on your upturned face but so does the light upon your shoulders…

The first time Drew and I held hands, I experienced two things at once: exhilaration and guilt. My divorce had been finalized earlier that day, and I remember my mother and sisters creating a special dinner outside on our deck overlooking Lake Sammamish…

Today is Maundy Thursday. On this day two thousand years ago, Jesus was weeping in a garden. He had just finished a meal with his closest friends, knowing that one would betray him, the other deny him, and still more would fall asleep on him. But Jesus loved them anyways…

Get ready for a sort-of embarrassing poem straight from the heart of my exuberant eight-year-old self…

Have you ever seen Disney’s 1991 animated version of Beauty and the Beast? If not, please put your entire life on hold and go watch it. It is enchanting, through and through. When I was a little girl, I had a giant princess-shaped pillow with Belle on the front holding a stack of books in one hand and her skirt in the other, posing in a winsome “Who, Me?” fashion…

This week, I’m simply sharing a poem. My soul and body have been weary, so I wasn’t planning to write anything since it has become continuously apparent that sorrow cannot, as it were, be confined to a one-week acceptable grieving period—as much as I have tried…

Spring never fails to surprise me. Each year, it seems like such an impossibility that life could blossom from the sterile harshness of winter. But it does. This Tuesday morning, I set out with a hopeful heart into the damp possibility of spring…

My sweet grandpa died on Sunday morning.

Since then, I’ve been aimlessly wandering around the house with a hammer in hand and nails in my mouth, searching for the perfect place to hang art—only to take it down a few hours later…

I had the privilege of sitting at my grandfather’s bedside last week, and what I experienced was hard and holy, tearful and joyful…

My palms were sweaty and my 4-year-old heart was beating rapidly. Sitting in a circle with my preschool class, I began to squirm; the stakes were high. It was almost my turn…

I had forgotten to anticipate those horrible eye drops. Each time my yearly eye exam rolls around, I naively think to myself, “I’ll just pop in, pop out, and have a joyously productive afternoon.” Yet every year, I leave with stinging, dilated eyes and pupils the size of a cat’s, utterly incapacitated for the next 4-6 hours…

I will never know for certain what is growing in the black plastic container on my window sill. For Christmas of 2019, my Dad gave me a packet of money tree seeds which he had received in his gift bag from a financial conference. According to legend, money trees bring financial prosperity to their owner…

Abre los ojos. Open your eyes.

These are the opening lines of Disney’s latest animated movie, Encanto—an enchanting story that is 100% fun, 70% Family Systems Therapy. I couldn’t recommend it more. Its plot features a young woman who is burdened by her gift of being the only one who can truly see the cracks in her family’s foundation…

This week marks a year since I began writing this blog in response to a subtle yet persistent question that had been building in me for quite some time, ever since I left my job as a counselor in 2018…

To have an epiphany is  to experience an “aha!” moment—a moment of illumination and piercing clarity. Today, on the Christian feast of Epiphany, we celebrate the manifestation of Christ’s identity to the world.

When I think about the magi—quite possibly astronomers—I think of the star which may have come suddenly into view one night as they searched the sky like countless nights before…

For the past several weeks, I have been exploring the Advent themes of hope amidst darkness, our great need for Emmanuel, and cultivating a posture that is open to the life-bearing work of the Holy Spirit. This week, I have the honor of sharing my husband’s recent article…

Theotokos is an ancient name for the Mother of God used especially within the Eastern Orthodox church tradition. Theotokos combines the Greek words for God (Theo) and Bearer (Tokos) to form the title, God-Bearer or God-birther. Ever since I discovered this name, I have been pondering it in my heart—delighted to think of Mary as Theotokos.

Advent is my favorite holy season. Its themes of waiting in the dark for the coming light, entering fully into the story of Christ’s first appearance on earth, and paying attention to our longing for Christ’s return all feel like “Yes, yes, and yes. This is my heartbeat.”…

Three years ago, I had a dream that November of 2021 would be painful and hard. So when November rolled around this year, I braced for impact—just in case…