I just read an article on why chocolate is good for me. Correction. I just read another article on why chocolate is good for me. Because you don’t have to try very hard to find commentary on chocolate’s antioxidant powers and its ability to lower cholesterol and blood pressure and improve memory and stave off cancer and all the other countless things that make chocolate a serious superfood. Google will always offer up articles with …

“Do you want breadsticks?” “What?” I said and leaned half my body over the counter. “Do you want breadsticks!” he yelled. I was in the mall, standing under the neon Sbarro sign at dinnertime rush hour. The cashier, a teen in plastic gloves and a hairnet, looked desperate. I finally nodded “yes” because who doesn’t want breadsticks? Behind me, my family continued to howl. I don’t mean howling in a metaphorical sense. My husband, five-year-old …

1 PETER 5:10-11 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.   William Blake, the famous poet of “The Tyger” and “The Lamb” believed in something that looked a lot like a graduated scale of sin to sanctity. He wrote all about it in “The …

I did not know adults napped. Until the first weekend I spent with my husband’s family, I thought it was only something children did in infancy or on colored mats in kindergarten. But at around two o’clock on that Sunday, something in the house shifted. People started to disappear. They retreated into their various spaces without a word. The house was deadly quiet and so I tiptoed through the living room like a thief. My …

There’s a famous scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” that almost everybody knows. It’s plague season, and Eric Idle wanders through the village streets yelling, “Bring out your dead!” People toss bodies on the wagon like it’s recycling day. And then there’s that one guy who just can’t get with the program. He’s on the wagon of death, and he lifts up his head like a baby bird and croaks, “I’m not dead …

ROMANS 1:16 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” If you were to ask me, “Are you ashamed of being a Christian?” I would probably narrow my eyes and say, “Why would you ask that?” I always want to know the angle. And when someone comes at you with that line of questioning, they often have …

I grew up on “Dead Poets Society” and “The Breakfast Club.” Robin Williams was my teacher idol and Judd Nelson my idol crush. Give me poetry and Saturday school and see what happens. I majored in English and read “Leaves of Grass.” Of course I did. I am the bulls eye in the targeted audience for carpe diem in all its glory. I want magic and opportunity. I want the extraordinary life. Except now I …

Our family situation calls for a very particular set of skills. We need the Navy SEALS version of babysitters. And I don’t know another mother with a child with special needs who doesn’t feel the same. We already get less free time, much less time away without worry over our children’s safety. We can’t afford to hand out freebies. It’s nothing personal. It’s business, the business of running our family. We need our people we …

REVELATION 2:17  17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. So the twins got into the bookcase on New Year’s day while my husband was thawing our frozen water pipes under the house and I was …

One word on the Oxford Dictionary’s 2016 “word of the year” list spoke wonders about our nation’s current mental, political, and emotional state. “Hygge,” in case you haven’t heard of it, is the Danish word for creating an intimate, cozy experience wherever you are. There’s not even a direct translation into English. It’s an idea, an ambiance. It’s about crocheted blankets and fuzzy socks and hot toddies by the fire. It’s about staging the cover …