Forcing her feet to step out of the car, Susan dried her eyes before walking into the country dance hall. No one there knew that the reason she wanted to dance was also why her tears fell so easily. Her love for dancing started with the house dances from her childhood. Susan beamed, “I was not any older than five… Read More
One time when away from my office for four weeks, I failed to have anyone water the plants. When I came back, the plants were brown, shriveled up, and almost dead. I did not know if I could bring them back to their former vibrant selves, but I had to try. Having a tender heart for living things on the… Read More
Do you have that one person still on your Christmas gift list for whom you have no idea what to buy? And if you are like me, after you choose something, you include a gift receipt anyway. It is challenging enough to pick out gifts, but what do you give someone who is grieving? How do you celebrate the season… Read More
We face much heartache in life. No one wants to willingly walk into painful times. But since you will at some point find yourself facing a difficult situation, look around and see what beauty you can find. You may be surprised. Sometimes you go through thistles before finding the beauty. You can find beauty in the midst of hard times,… Read More
Today is the fifth anniversary of when my father-in-law, Don Schweingruber, died. I think of him often and know he’d have a lot of wisdom to share with us all during these chaotic times. We shared many conversations about life and death. I treasure those moments. As I reflect on his life, I wanted to share an earlier podcast I… Read More
When my children were little, they did not want to put their faces under water. During swimming lessons, I watched as their wonderful coach gently worked with them to get more comfortable. First they blew bubbles and then gradually put their heads further in the water. It took a long time, over several lessons, before they were able to bob… Read More
Do you tell others to find closure? Or do you think something is wrong with you because there seems to be no closure after a loss? Stop worrying about closure. We don’t need closure to heal. Closure continues to be a popular concept in our culture. However, it is just a word we’ve made up to talk about loss. Sadly,… Read More
In an earlier post, I encouraged people to rethink the definition of beauty in order to find it in brokenness. In addition to broadening our imagination of what beauty means, we need to expand our awareness of how small acts of kindness can give others great beauty. We live in a broken world—poverty, discrimination, crime, death, and war. We also… Read More
