Last year, my word for 2018 was a quote from D. L. Mayfield, "Here's to a 2018 full of digging deep(er) inner wells." It was more than one word. It fit me perfectly. And I didn't find it until January 18. So you've got time. This space between Christmas and New Years is when eveyone seems to be finding their one word for the coming year. Actually, this time we're in is the 12 Days of Christmas or Christmastide, and it extends all the way to Epiphany when the Magi found Jesus under his star. Did you Continue Reading

What do you think of when someone asks the question, "Are you ready for Christmas?"? I can tell you the lights are up on our eaves. We went to the Christmas tree farm and cut down a beautiful Turkish Fir, the one with sky blue on the underside of the needles. It twinkles in the corner of our Gathering Room waiting for a star topper. My Christmas cards are ordered, imprinted with “Merriest Christmas, love the Conlins”. Sometimes, I think I'm read when I set out my Nativity. But none of that means I am ready for Christmas. Continue Reading

Writing makes friends and builds community. This week my dear friend, Leslie, sent me this quote by librarian and author Lawrence Clark Powell, "Write to be understood, speak to be heard, and read to grow." I said a hearty,"Yes!" to all three statements. They seem to form a circle. I love to read, but it was the writing part that lingered. I have thought of it all week. Why? I write to understand my own heart and the good and beautiful God who made me. Those two things are tied together. Then God connects me Continue Reading

"I do this (looking back) in the hope of encouraging others to do the same - at least to look back over their own lives, as I have looked back over mine, for certain themes and patterns and signals that are so easy to miss when you're caught up in the process of living them." Frederick Buechner Pausing a moment at the end of each season to glance back over my shoulder at my life is my way of seeing more clearly where I might be headed in the next season. Does that seem counterintuitive? Why look backward Continue Reading