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Tag Archives: Hope
Faramir and Hope
A line spoken by Faramir, in The Lord of Rings, pierced my heart and grief. Although full of Christian truths and values, The Lord of the Rings is not, Tolkien insists, a Christian allegory. Middle earth is perhaps best understood … Continue reading
The Wounded Healer: Limping into 2024
How do we help others heal when we are deeply wounded? Where do we find the strength and the heart to help others when our own wounds still cry out? I think the longer one has lived the more likely … Continue reading
Climb, Climb, Up Sunshine Mountain
The blessings of God are fresh every morning, but these days so is the grief. Teckla and I are sorting out stuff and hauling things to the dump, so every day we come across things that belonged to Peter: clothes, … Continue reading
Failing Peter
In my last post I said Teckla and I had failed Peter in many ways. A couple of people kindly insisted we hadn’t, so I think I should clarify. Some may think this sense of failure is the guilt parents … Continue reading
Deep Waters
The older I get, the more I love (and perhaps need) this story about fishing (Luke 5:3—8). Peter, James, and John had been fishing all night with no luck. They had taken their nets out of the boats and spread … Continue reading
The Monarch
Yesterday I saw a monarch butterfly in the garden. It nearly brought me to tears. Bright orange and black, it danced over the milkweed (asclepias speciosa) then landed and nectared from the pink and white flowers. It flew up and … Continue reading
How Grandchildren Save the World and Our Souls
I am convinced that grandchildren save the world. No matter how cynical, skeptical, and jaded we senior citizens become, our hearts still melt when a grandchild slips their hand in ours, places a kiss on our cheek, or squeaks out, … Continue reading
The New Year: The Humility of Hope and Arrogance of Despair
On New Year’s Eves, we look with hope toward the coming year. But sometimes, we look ahead and can’t see any reason the coming year will be better than the last. Few things are sadder than beginning a new year … Continue reading
In Praise of Parsnips
I threw seeds into the growing bed this fall. The carrots had been pulled and weeds hoed. While cleaning out my brother’s apartment, I had found some old packets of radish and parsnips seeds. I am not sure why Stanley … Continue reading
Hope Against Hope
I have held off writing on hope even though this virtue has become a constant companion/enemy this last year. Yet, nothing else comes to mind when I think of posting a blog. Life has made hope hard to write about. … Continue reading