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The 12 Blogs of Christmas #8: Disappointment
Disappointment is unwrapping a package of underwear on Christmas morning. At least when you’re a kid. When you’re a grown up, disappointment becomes intangible, harder to trace to its source, more like a hollow, reverberating thud. And Christmastime, with all of its twinkle and shine, can make the untraceable emptiness worse because maybe your life does not resemble the front of a Christmas card. Maybe watching George and Mary Bailey and their pixie-faced children prompts you to chuck candy canes at the TV screen because maybe it turned out to be a Wonderful Life for them, but it certainly isn’t turning out that way for you. Perhaps this is your first…
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The 12 blogs of Christmas #7: Ponder
(This is a re-post. *First Ponder was written shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in Dec. of 2012) Today is a snow day. A perfect day to ponder and lately, I’ve been pondering what it means to ponder…. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2:19) Mary did not endure packed Wal-Mart aisles. She wasn’t in charge of baking the Christmas ham, didn’t stress over gingerbread cookies or family coming over or finding last minute stocking stuffers. She wasn’t hunting down the scotch tape or waiting in line at the post office, or figuring out what to wear or…
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The 12 Blogs of Christmas #6: little kicking kings
The Christmas story contains a villain and it isn’t Ebenezer Scrooge. Naturally, we focus on the angels, the extraordinary star, the sweet baby. But in the midst of all this lurks a villain: King Herod. King Herod the… um… Great. Or so he said. If he felt anyone was a threat to his power he had them slaughtered—including his wife, her mother, and several of his own sons. In fact, Augustus Caesar said it would be better to be Herod’s pig than his son! Ouch. King Herod the Paranoid Tyrant is more like it. He was all about control. Having it, exerting it, and holding on to it. Herod was…
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Christmas Paradox
Paradox enhances any story and the Christmas story is paradox at its best. Maybe unexpected is a better word, as in Who would have thunk it? or Say what?! Lots of people were waiting for the messiah but his entrance wasn’t like anything they were expecting. A few Christmas surprises: The glorious becomes an embryo. Remember Moses? Remember how in the Old Testament God gave him a glimpse of His Glory, but only a glimpse, because if Moses were to see all of God’s glory he would die? Well now all that glory is condensed and concealed in the most hidden of places—Mary’s womb. Vulnerable. Dependent. Entering the world, like…
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The 12 Blogs of Christmas #3: Light
I have found the hot spot in my house and I never want to leave. My loveseat is drenched in sunlight and I’m as warm as toast, even though it’s frightfully cold outside and the clouds zoom through the sky like boats on a lake. It is one of those rare and wonderful days where I don’t need to be anywhere for a few hours. I’ll grocery shop later. I’ll throw in a load of laundry later. Right now I’m all about basking in this light. I’m staying put. So is the dog it seems. From this spot I’ve worked on my computer, done a little reading, made a phone…
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The Twelve Blogs of Christmas: #2 Peace
I have lost the A in PEACE. The stockings are hung by the chimney in aggravation because my mantelpiece bears a typo: P E C E. So reads my stocking hangers. Rearranging them only renders further nonsense: CEEP. PEEC. ECEP. There isn’t much you can do without that A. I kind of need that A. Oh where oh where is that wayward A? Somewhere in my basement, no doubt, to be uncovered when I’m packing up the stockings. Decoratively speaking, I have been robbed of my PEACE. Peace is an illusive thing. Almost indefinable. Is peace the absence of war and conflict? But what if conflict or war leads to…
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The 12 Blogs of Christmas: #1 Yearning
When we long for something, when we hunger, we feel it in our gut. For kids, almost better than opening presents, is the anticipation of the presents. The yearning. The dreaming. Wondering. Hoping. Waiting, waiting, waiting… until…. finally. Finally! Before the finally, before Christmas day, I want to yearn. I want to be a star-gazer, a ragged shepherd turned herald, an innkeeper who has little to offer but offers it anyway. Before we celebrate, let’s forget. Forget we know what happens in the story. Pretend, just for a moment, we don’t know anything about the baby in the straw. Baby? Why would there be a baby in the straw? Strange.…
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Hand Over the Cheese and Don’t Look at the Bread
The best thing about Paris? For me? No doubt the Eifel tower is glorious, the cathedrals and architecture stunning, the history, artwork, literary gems– (I took a picture of Victor Hugo’s writing desk!) all amazing. But if I’m really being honest? The best thing about Paris? The cheese. I know. I’m a Wisconsin girl. I know cheese. But this cheese… how do I sum this up… I wanted to gobble it up, all of it, and I didn’t care about the digestive repercussions. Sheep cheese, goat cheese, cow cheese. All of it. When the dessert choice presented was Apple Tart Tatin or cheese, I took the cheese. (and snitched from…
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Grace for Insomnia
Falling asleep sounds like it should be a piece of cake. But if you’ve ever struggled with insomnia you know that it can be anything but. The word Insomnia even sounds scary… like tsunami or insanity or zombie, which kinda makes sense because having insomnia makes you feel like an insane zombie. During the day, I can be quite focused (usually). Too focused, sometimes. Tunnel vision-ed, in other words. Not long ago, as I wheeled my cart out of the grocery store, I realized that I had not even made eye contact with my check out girl. Or was it a boy? Rachel, this isn’t good, said The Quiet Voice…
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Village People
I’ve always kind of bristled at the phrase It takes a village to (fill in the blank) . But sometimes, it does. Before my novel was published I heard so many authors say something like “much of the work happens after the book is published because then you have to market…” and I’d stand there and smile with the phrase to market to market to buy a fat pig, running through my brain because the word market didn’t have much meaning. Here’s how I define it, what I’ve whittled it down to, at least with books: There are lots of books out there and you want yours to stand out.…