Hannah prayed and said,    “My heart exults in the Lord;    my strength is exalted in my God.” I Samuel 2: 1 Our daughter Hannah made it home from Milwaukee last night in spite of the  high winds and thick fog. She made it home just in time for her birthday. The day she was born there was also…

“The voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way . .. “  Mark 1: 3  In this season of Advent we remember that the wilderness was the place that John called the people of God to come out to. He asked them to come away and prepare their hearts for the new thing that…

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the lands”. Psalm 100:1 The sunrise was so beautiful this morning with deep reds and golds filling the sky and brushing beautiful light upon the trees. The words of Psalm 100 were my morning prayer.  Well at least the first few verses of the Psalm, “ Make…

“In my mother’s house there are many dwelling places. . .” paraphrase of John 14: 2 These words echoed in my head last week as we began the work of helping my mom move from her home of 60 years into a senior independent living apartment in her St. Louis Park neighborhood. After 60 years of…

There is a nakedness to the trees in this season, a transparency to them. Perhaps this is part of the reason the Celts believed that there is a thinness to this season. They felt that at this time of year the veil between the living and the dead was very sheer. May Sarton in part of…

This week I had a conversation with one of the kids at the middle school where I work. She asked me, “What is your favorite month of the year?”  It happened to be a sunny day and the hillside where the school stood was ablaze with color. We both agreed on the month October, in part because of…

Lately, I have been spending my days at Lincoln Park Middle School working as a paraprofessional. I get to work with lots of different kids and go with them to their classes, again meeting all kinds of kids. I have to say I truly stand in awe of middle school teachers and all they deal…

Last weekend we hiked several trails up on the north shore while camping at Judge Magney State Park. I love this time of year with the smells of pine and cedar, the crunching of leaves underfoot and the softness of the light.  The rain and fog muted the colors some, but it was still so…

I lift up my eyes to the hills—    from where will my help come?2 My help comes from the Lord,    who made heaven and earth.                                     Psalm 121 The words from this Psalm wove their way around my heart and prayers this past week as we camped and hiked in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota….