Touch Hands!

The phone calls started the night before and continued well into the morning: “Are you going?” “Do you think the roads will be safe?” “What does your husband say? What does your mother say?” I had been watching the weather forecasts just as intently as everyone else....

A Merry Christmas…and a Bit of News!

It is the Sixth Day of Christmas. Without, the world is cloaked in gloom, dripping with rain and endless mist, but within the lights on the tree and the candles scattered about gleam with increasing warmth. I love this point in the season, when the rooms are tidy and...

The Surety of Joy

This flurry of plansis over, over.And I’m sorry and glad together.Our bustling houseis sane now, sane now.And I’m sorry and glad together.”Sorry and Glad Together,” Karen Peris This lyric by Karen Peris of The Innocence Mission perfectly...

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Eve It is the afternoon before Thanksgiving and I’m sitting for a moment by my kitchen fire with my tea (and a wee drop of sherry, just to celebrate all that’s been accomplished thus far!). The cranberry conserve, with its aromas sacred to this day since...

Fear Not, Little Flock

The Cotswolds, July 2019 No joke—we were supposed to be spending St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. We made the plans months ago, as soon as the date was settled for my Awards Ceremony in Oxford at the end of March: we would visit beloved friends in Northern Ireland and...

A Happy Christmas

It is the Feast of the Epiphany, and I’ve watched the sunrise—as I have almost every morning of this blessed season—beyond the sparkle and magic of my Christmas tree. I’ve seen the low-hung clouds turn lavender and then flush with gold, as if at some heavenly delight,...