reflections

  • God’s Rest and Healing

           Throughout my life, I can reflect back on the ways in which I have been privileged to have many different teachers and how many of my most important lessons in life have come from unexpected places. One continual, and… Continue reading

    God’s Rest and Healing
  • A Trampled Sabbath

           In Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, one can find some of the best life advice there is, but within the framework of a non-fiction exploration of writing. Dillard is a master at blending poetry and prose as she dances… Continue reading

    A Trampled Sabbath
  • The Listening Pilgrim

    No one comes to any of life’s journeys in a vacuum; we come carrying all the burdens that life has laid upon us. We do not come to any pilgrimage devoid of the ways in which our journey has shaped… Continue reading

    The Listening Pilgrim
  • Transitions in Late Spring

    The southeast met me with air heavy with humidity, magnolias in bloom, and the ubiquitous smell of wild honey suckle. It met with all the memories of who I once was in light of who I am becoming. Refusing to… Continue reading

    Transitions in Late Spring
  • And I Prayed: A Woman’s First Time

    I continue to have firsts in the church; today, I taught my first class. While it doesn’t quite compare to serving Eucharist, it was certainly reminiscent of experiencing that first. Last November, after I prayed and served my first Eucharist,… Continue reading

  • Reflection: Telling stories

    In Day Twenty Six, the patient spent about 30 minutes telling me stories. Not stories of how she found herself in the hospital, not stories of what she was going to do when she got out of the hospital, but… Continue reading

  • Reflection: Not everyone needs a chaplain

    My first few days I struggled with feeling as if I wasn’t being chaplainy enough. I would spend time with the patients, and quickly, I would learn if their children were wonderful, or if they provided a source of anxiety, I learned where they… Continue reading

  • Reflection: God as the Stranger

    It was my first real death, a few weeks into my time at the hospital, I was far from the wide-eyed new chaplain, but I’m hardly seasoned either. It was particularly hard. An all day process, everyone involved knew that… Continue reading

  • Reflections

    Fifty days, fifty sayings on God. Throughout my time this summer doing this blog, I have wanted to give more. After all, these 50 sayings are merely a window into my ministry this summer; along the way, people have asked me… Continue reading