Making small talk in the kitchen at church one Sunday, a young man told me he had camped out the night before. We commiserated about how the unexpected cold had surprised him and how he wrapped every layer he brought around him—jeans, a flannel, and a hammock—leaving him wishing for at least one more layer [...]
With alarms set to go off at 5 am, I laid awake in bed, too excited to go back to sleep. Eclipse day! I'd read the books. I'd watched the documentaries. I'd refreshed the NASA website pages. But I'd never seen a Total Solar Eclipse. This was the day! My husband Peter and three [...]
After the last ornaments were packed up mostly with care for another eleven months in the attic, after the snowflake plates were packaged and foisted up the ladder, only one thing remained to call Christmas cleanup "done." The porcelain nativity, one of my most precious Christmas possessions, would be placed in Styrofoam molds and [...]
Like the rest of the world, we're in the middle of Christmas over at the Presently Engaged Podcast! Each short and friendly episode is just right for your walk around the block in the middle of a busy week or the drive to your family get-together. Here are three episodes I think you'll enjoy: #42: Somebody [...]
You've heard the story: The shepherds were in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, terrifying each brave shepherd. The angel declared good news of great joy given to all people in all of time—including you and me: "Fear not, for behold, I bring [...]
Remember inspecting the packages underneath the tree? You may not have been old enough to read, but you could recognize your own name. There it was: mixed in with other presents, was one wrapped just for you. And there was your name. You knew that on Christmas morning, you would open that present, and [...]
On a trip through the mountains, aspen trees quake in glorious splendor, ablaze in orange and red and gold. Rarely will you find a lone aspen—they grow in stands or groves. Why? Because aspen trees grow together, not separately. The visible part of a tree is not the entire part. Below the surface, roots [...]
I've had this weird thing going on with my eye, and been putting off getting it looked at. At random times, most often in the evening, my left eye would feel like something was in it and be quite uncomfortable. Flushing with didn't help. Visually inspecting my eyeball didn't reveal a problem. My eye [...]
Dates don't have to be confined to the prototypical "dinner and a movie." Although, for the record, a dinner and a movie is indeed one of our favorite dates. When Peter (also known as the Man of My Dreams) and I were getting to know each other, we searched for effective ways to grow a [...]
Asking questions and listening well can take every relationship deeper. Have an engagement tool for the next time awkward silence fills the air Discover the God-designed uniqueness of another person Help someone else process his or her thoughts and emotions Engage in new or sensitive situations in non-threatening, conversational ways Jump into your day [...]
