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Hi there. It’s been a hot minute, but I’m happy to be back, writing. Have you heard “Hall of Fame” by The Script, ft. will.i.am? If not, go listen to it here . Go on. This’ll wait. Okay. So you listened to it. What struck you most? I can’t guess for you, but for me, apart from the driving piano throughout, I’m always drawn lyrically to the chorus and to the “you could” parts. The beat underneath them, the instrumentation, the …
I wrote this in November, but never published it. Here it is, now, still as true as ever. Today my sister taught me about grace and bravery. Now, to be sure, my sister has taught me many other lessons along the way (sometimes about the above, sometimes about other things.) But today, she reminded me about what it means to be an adult and to be in relationship. As siblings, we go back pretty far and that means that we …
My grandfather was a man of many stories… He had stories that I hadn’t ever heard and stories that I heard over and over again. I’m certain that, like all parents, he made mistakes when he was raising my mother and her brother and her sister. My uncle was married many many many times and I grew up in a family with its own set of issues. The extremeness, in some ways, of the lives that (at least) my mom …
I was raised Catholic and I worked in youth ministry both as a volunteer and as a paid employee for many years. While it’s been many years since I have been to a church for anything other than an occasional Mass here and there (weddings, funerals, sometimes a visit on my own), I always return to the liturgical calendar when it comes to December. Our Decembers, societally, are filled with parties and shopping and work events. They are crammed full …
Know what brings me joy? Seeing joy spread into others’ lives. When I started noticing my daily joys, I didn’t think much of it. They evolved naturally, out of a many-yeared gratitude practice. I’d started with finding five things every day that I was thankful for back in 2006. It evolved naturally out of my exposure to The Examen, an Ignatian practice of looking over one’s day. I’d learned it while in college, five years earlier. A friend once told …
