Emotions & Prayer

Yesterday was a really bad day. It might have been a combination of different factors (little sleep, lots of projects), but even the culmination of everything I can think of doesn’t usually hit me so hard. Such is the mystery of anxiety I suppose. Through the gritted teeth and scattered tears, I still prayed. I […]

The Impossible

I am not a musical person. I took piano lessons…five? times. I really wish I’d stuck with it, but here we are. I am also not a musical person in that I can quite literally go a full month (probably more) without intentionally listening to any music. That freaks out some of my friends, but […]

Not in Charge

We’d been talking about it throughout our time in the US. Distance helped us think about it slightly more objectively. It would be an investment to be sure, and we were slightly worried it wouldn’t work. But other people had had so much success with it, didn’t it have to work? We were both even getting ads for it.

Drought

I’d been feeling off for, I don’t know, a week or three? It was a familiar patterned progression, but it didn’t diminish the discomfort or the oppressive weight of it. There was a lot going on — with family, work, and school. I’d dealt with worse, though, so what was going on? I knew before […]

Starting

The student who calls me mom came to see me at her wit’s end. She just couldn’t bring herself to do her history project, she said. She didn’t feel like it, she’d already had a stressful day, but it was due soon and she knew she needed to work on it. Might I have any […]

What We Learned from Hiking a (not) Mountain

One of my favorite hikes is a mere 40 minute drive from my dad’s house. I was fortunate to do it twice when recently visiting family, although I still dream of doing it once a week. The one, the only, the Billy Goat Trail. Reminiscent of musings from an Old Rag hike about three years […]

In Which I Avoid Asking for Help

A few weeks ago, I was preparing to speak for a Study Week at my software engineering school. For those of you who know my word of the year, this was a commitment I made before the new year : ) I was thankful to be able to take part. But I was struggling. I’d […]

What to Do After Messing Up

When we mess up, come back to the Lord with your whole heart. He is the only safe place; and His arms are always open to His children, even right after a huge mistake.

The Inaccuracy of Streaks

Whether you’re a New Years resolution kinda person or not, we all generally seek to make improvements in our lives from time to time. Often, it involves incorporating new habits: exercising X amount of times a week, reading the Bible consistently, spending more time with loved ones. When creating these habits, we often rely on […]

My Word for 2021

The word for the year came faster and more subtly than I expected. I anticipated a word out of left field, something I wouldn’t understand but would come to grasp as spring gave way to summer. Instead, what came into focus made almost too much sense. Am I just choosing this word for my own […]