We tend to refer to different parts of our lives as seasons, linking them to our natural weather seasons. We experience different seasons in our faith, relationships, and as we age. Winter is used to describe experiences that are barren, challenging, or related to dying. Spring represents youth, new life, and growth. Summer is the…
Some of my earliest memories are related to my fear of the dark. I’ve heard people say they aren’t afraid of the dark, but of what’s in the dark. Not me! I lay full blame on the dark. Darkness conceals things that aren’t allowed to bother you in the daytime. When I was little, I…
During graduate school, it took an embarrassing amount of encouragement and cheerleading from my friends and family for me to complete my degree. While I’d been a big fish in a small pond as an undergraduate, I was now a tiny, very naïve fish in a rather large lake. I regularly wanted to quit, even…
I flee from pain. In a fight-or-flight scenario, I’m outta there. I’m running as fast as I can (basically 5mph) in any direction. Even in a novel, when the storyline unavoidably builds to a painful point and something earth-shattering is happening, my heart rate picks up, the tears flood, I close the book, and I’m…
My life changed in late July 2016. It was high summer in Minnesota, the payoff for living through the winters here. My husband and I had plans for a trip to Nashville during the third weekend of August. A writer’s organization to which I belong was having its annual conference and awards gala, and I…
“Santa Claus raised boys to life again after they were in pickle barrels?” my son asked. “That’s the story. But it was God who raised them to life. He just used Saint Nicholas,” I said. Neither my husband nor I celebrated Santa Claus growing up. Our parents prioritized the celebration of Jesus’ birth over the…