Essays

What if Pagan Festivals are Just Misinterpreted Yearnings for Christian Feast Days?

It feels like the climate of Mercury outside, only hotter.  The sun is out from practically sunrise to sunset.  And the lightning bugs have started appearing as soon as I tell my kids it’s time for them to go to bed causing long battles that always...

Accused of Being a ‘Becky’ While Minding My Own Business

I pass by the local middle school on my run route every morning.  Yesterday, I ran by as they were doing some sort of drill outside.  Several of the middle school males took a break from telling each other doody jokes and giving each other dutch...

A Sourdough Loaf of Lies and a Journey Towards Food Independence

            My grocery store made a bold claim.  Printed on the sticker of several loaves in the bakery were the words “Tastes just like San Francisco Sourdough Bread”.             For a few years,...

What If Staring at People While They Sleep Isn’t Necessarily Psychopathic but a Misinterpreted Yearning to See the Sleeper as They Will Look When Perfected?

            I share a common interest with psychopaths: watching people sleep.  Though, I can’t be sure our motives for watching people are the same.  And I don’t sneak into other people’s...
A Not-So-Great Defense of King David

A Not-So-Great Defense of King David

I recently read through a discussion on social media about King David.  The argument being made was the very notion that the church would hold King David in any kind of esteem proved just how anti-woman and patriarchal the church is.  He used his...

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A Monarch Infestation

A Monarch Infestation

In the course of busy, we were interrupted by unexpected visitors. At the most, we tend to only find three or four Monarch caterpillars on our milkweed. This year, there were close to twenty. And a month early, to boot! They ate all but four branches of my milkweed...

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Becoming a Haiku

Becoming a Haiku

Even as a child, I was fascinated with the concept of Haiku poetry.  It seemed madness to me to take something as free-flowing and abandoned as writing from the heart and applying such Draconian restrictions to it as 5 syllables followed by 7 syllables and...

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It’s Nice to be Back

It’s Nice to be Back

I won’t go into all the reasons as to why I’d stayed away.  Suffice it to say, the Church had always been my sanctuary from the world and then, last year, the world invaded my sanctuary.  And so, befuddled and incensed, I stayed away....

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God Designed the Foot, but Can He Be Trusted?

God Designed the Foot, but Can He Be Trusted?

It is sometimes in the unexpected minutiae that we are surprised, once again, by the fact that God’s design works just fine without any human tinkering.  I kept planning to start running again, but various obstacles kept coming up.  Proving forever true the...

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S(k)in Cancer

S(k)in Cancer

I started the new year with a melanoma diagnosis.  It was a very small tumor that had not spread.  The treatment was to just cut out all the skin around it to make sure there was no remaining melanoma and then spend the rest of my life being vigilant for any...

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The Bible is Not Boring – Change My Mind.

The Bible is Not Boring – Change My Mind.

The Bible is a ginormous volume made up of 73 different books spanning thousands of years following generations of people.  Are there boring parts?  Yes.  Leviticus is a tad dry and there are other parts that take some determination to get...

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