A-Z

O is for Our Father

When your spirit feels stripped, when your foundation is rocked, when you watch your friend’s lives being torn in half like a giant bed sheet, you begin to wonder about this God – the one that you have never not known, the one that you have sung about since you can remember, the one that…

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N is for Nourishment

Last week, the stars aligned. First, my friend Debbie dropped me an email, seemingly out of the blue, asking me if I read any Annie Dillard. My reaction: does Rick Astley shake his groove thang? Annie Dillard is breathtaking – one of my favorite writers. Her “Living Like Weasels” makes me want to throw a…

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M is for Magic

(A word of caution: Prepare yourself not for art, or beauty, or wisdom, or humor, or insight… but simply for an explosion of my heart.) Remember this mysterious, ambiguous entry? I received an email this morning: Annie, Congratulations! You’ve passed our audition process… And on June 21, 2009, I’ll be fulfilling one of my biggest…

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L is for the Long Answer

“How are you doing, Annie?” A simple question – it could be passed off as small talk if it hadn’t been so intentional, so perceptive. And immediately, a few of the tears that had been hanging in the corners of my eyes for weeks just… let go. She knew – she had sensed it. And…

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K is for Kaleidoscope

We come into this world vessels of beauty, pre-packed with purpose and potential. We are full of hope, full of possibility. But eventually, the various shapes and colors inside of us begin to shake around like a jigsaw puzzle, rattling our brains, and we long to make sense of the chaos. So we begin to…

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J is for Jumper cables

Sometimes, my heart needs them. Sometimes, my mind needs them. Sometimes, my will needs them. Sometimes, my faith needs them. Thank goodness for my mom. Who serves as the jumper cables to YOUR soul?

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I is for Imagine that…

My weekend was packed with sundry events of note. For starters, on Friday afternoon at work, I took the elevator and made small talk with the other passenger – a complete stranger. He told me that he was throwing a party that night. I told him to have fun. That night, I donned a red…

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H is for Havens and Hymnals

Confession: I haven’t felt like going to church lately. Blame it on the fact that this is the first time in my life when I haven’t HAD to go to church. As a pastor’s daughter, and then a student at a Christian university, and then a worship leader and church employee, it’s easy to think…

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G is for… just a tribute to G

G is a very nice letter, don’t you think? Not as nice as A – A is just so sturdy and stable. It would be hard to knock over an A, what with its solid base and symmetrical shape. A is the best letter. But G is nice, too. It might roll around a little…

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F is for Fail

On this non-laborious Labor Day, I have known that I am obligated to posting about something that starts with an F. I have been sitting here with the dictionary, furiously flipping folios trying to find a blog-worthy F-word. Fall? Please come soon. Forecast? Hot forever. Felons? Across the street – and old news, anyway. Fedora?…

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