Living Abundantly
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Lessons from the Garden: Patience
In the dead of winter, the idea of planning a new little cut flower garden was a bright spot. A meager 4ft x 8ft garden bed was full of possibilities. Can we actually make dahlias grow and flourish? They have a reputation for being finicky. Should we start our zinnias from seeds inside? Where should I get unique varieties of the cosmos I want to grow? The possibilities are endless. In mid-March we started our seeds in a corner of the basement, complete with a seedling tray, grow light and heat mat. It all went well, and seedling deaths were kept to a minimum. The preparation that goes along with…
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How to Begin Again: Lessons from Nature (and Lent)
The doldrums of Lent are upon us. Several weeks of slogging through, haphazardly trying to fulfill commitments of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, sometimes doing them well and sometimes not doing them at all. But everything worth doing is worth doing, even poorly, right? Even in the midst of Winter’s Last Stand, (read: winter’s last shot at causing nasty viruses that knock whole families on their feet, keep small babies up at night with congested noses and keep preschoolers down all day, bound to the sofa with a fever) we must try to slog through, even if it’s poorly. Because as most people know it’s hard to keep commitments and fast…
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May You Find the Light in the Darkness
We found ourselves in the emergency room with our six week old. Our house was yet another casualty of RSV this season, and despite our best efforts to protect our six week old from it, we found ourselves rushing him to the hospital because we were concerned by his breathing that night. After getting him evaluated, he was given oxygen and his body found some rest and relief. And they wanted to admit him. An outcome I honestly wasn’t expecting when we took him in. As we sat in our dimmed room waiting for a hospital bed to be prepared for us, I contemplated the darkness of that moment. The…
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Learning to Surrender (The Sequel)
If you haven’t read Learning to Surrender, that’s part one of this story, so be sure to read that first. The week after learning baby was breech, I headed into the hospital for my version. I was pretty certain baby had already flipped back to head down, but I went to the hospital and asked for a quick ultrasound before they tried to place an IV. When they put the wand on my belly, it was very clear that baby was already head down. I was thrilled! All the pieces were in place to have a vaginal delivery, just a waiting game at this point. Jesus, you took care of…
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Learning to Surrender
Who likes to be in control? To plan? To know the next steps? Or at least choose those next steps? I do! But life has a tendency to get in the way. It feels like so often we are thrown into unwelcome circumstances and situations that we would never have chosen for ourselves. Back in February we found out we were expecting again. Happy news, certainly. After having had a miscarriage in the past, it always comes with certain levels of fear and anxiety. Around eight weeks pregnant, feeling sick as ever, I was able to go on a unique retreat. It was a beautiful and peaceful (and deeply nauseating)…
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The World is Thy Ship and Not Thy Home
After college, I moved to a new city with a new job and a new car. I didn’t know too many people, but I made good friends and found new roommates. The trouble was each time I found a new roommate, they would inevitably get engaged soon after and usually after about a year of living together, they’d move out and get married. Thus forcing me to repeat the process of finding a new roommate and/or a new place to live. I wasn’t in a financial position to afford rent without someone to split it with. I longed deeply for stability and permanence, and, quite frankly, to find my vocation.…
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Embrace Your Suffering
This has been an exhausting year full of suffering for so many. Our world is as divisive as ever. There are so many things to capture our attention and upset our peace. And in the time between writing and posting this, the world has been flipped upside down with war in Ukraine. Winter brings its own host of issues with cold weather, short days, and illness. Lots of illness this year. And regardless of what is going on in the world around us, our own lives carry on as usual, with all of its demands and stresses. It can feel overwhelming. For our family, illness has been rampant this winter,…
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A Parade of Priests: Thank you for being there.
When my dad was in the hospital, the priests kept coming in. The nurses were perplexed as to why there was a seeming parade of priests in and out of my dad’s hospital room. My mom let them know he’s the catholic bookstore owner in town. His network is large and he knows quite a lot of people and priests. And let me tell you, they showed up, and it was a beautiful witness. Friday On Friday, Fr. Eric Powell, our pastor, showed up to anoint him. He sat with my mom for some time as well. He likened this time to keeping vigil, a Holy Saturday of sorts. After…
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Heroes, Villains, and the Parking Meter Lady
I was having a morning. You know, one of those mornings.The type where you wake up early after having been up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours with your baby. The kind where you wake up groggy and grumpy and don’t handle things rationally. Where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed.That kind of morning. That morning I decided to take the kids to the library because we needed to return some books. It also seemed like a good diversion. We loaded the stroller, fed the meter, set my parking meter timer on the phone, and went in. We checked out our…
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Let Him Fight for You
In college, I was so afraid of allowing God to show me his plans for my life, especially my vocation. I remember talking with a vocations director from a religious order because I was so confused. I had an intense fear of being called to religious life and a strong desire to be married. The idea of allowing God to show me what he wanted left me spiritually paralyzed for quite some time. But that sister said, “It’s time to raise the white flag.” But I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what that meant when she said it. Maybe it should have been obvious, but I learned that the white…