Gift List
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moreThe One Holiday that God Demands is All of our Days?
On Monday, November 19 th, 2012We’re laughing like these crazy loons out in the middle of a field of corn. The Farmer’s got hold of that combine seat like he’s on this one-time shot at the whole round moon. It’s harvest and a time of thanksgiving and the holy cusp of Advent and you won’t pass by this way again and the corn just keeps on coming. ...
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moreThe Holiday that could become All of our Days — & change our lives
On Monday, November 05 th, 2012The woman I meet up on the concourse, she tells me she was done. Done with the man and the ring and the vows, done with the kids, done with her life. Her eyes are so large and fragile, hands trembling, the way your world can quake and break and the aftershocks rattle you and the stunned retelling. I touch her shoulder. And she crumbles in and heaves, and heaves that counting bl...
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moreHow to Prepare for Storms
On Monday, October 29 th, 2012Storm coming. The geese fly, this black arrow renting the sky before the rain and wind battle in. And we get the pumpkins and squash in, have the bread and applesauce out in the kitchen, and it’s always this – how do you live through storms? ...
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moreHow to Handle Losses
On Monday, October 22 nd, 2012All through the woods, the trees are letting go. I told the Farmer on the way home from Sunday chapel — when we came up to the top of Bobbie Johnson’s corner, and just before he turned, where you could look long to the northwest and out across Gingerich’s cornfield to their woodlot with the embers of maple — that it was brave, the way the trees made dyin...
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moreBest Tips for Effective Time Management
On Monday, October 08 th, 2012(Take time today for the Thanksgiving Chair? Best use of time… to live like this. If reading in a reader or email, view the video here… Consider pausing the music directly under the header?) On Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend… Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,...
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moreBest Way to Begin October: 31 Days to Crazy Joy {with Farm Video}
On Monday, October 01 st, 2012Welcome! To 31 Days?! I’ve never done a “31 days” before. I’m crazy. Crazy enough to think that everyone who breathes is a wild crusader for holy joy. The woman bent over the stove. The man pulling on work boots. All those who feel invisible and unimportant and alone and discouraged ...
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moreWhat Every Hard Week Needs to Know
On Monday, September 24 th, 2012Sometimes, even right before it really begins, you know how the week’s going to go. I look in the mirror early on a Monday morning, the bedhead looking more like a monsterhead, and I look right into that water-splattered mirror. And tell the woman looking back at me how the next seven days are likely to go down — are going to likely try to take me down. ...
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moreWhen Everything’s Pressing in a bit Too Much & You’d Just like Some Answers
On Monday, September 17 th, 2012I sat across from a woman who just kept looking up at the ceiling to keep herself from falling apart. Looked at the ceiling like she was looking for answers from somewhere on high. Looked at the ceiling and told me that she loved God and she hated God and right now was best of times and the worst of times and — that’s when she dropped her eyes hard like a gavel and ...
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moreThe problem of evil? The Greater Problem of Good?
On Monday, September 10 th, 2012So after dinner, she picks coneflowers in the garden. Cradles the long stems in her apron skirt, carries them up through the picket gate. And she turns to me on the top step of the porch, holds her apron out to me, all those purple petals — art in an apron. “Why is there all this loveliness?” She wants to know. I almos...
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moreWhat Fills the Space after a Goodbye
On Tuesday, September 04 th, 2012He wasn’t yet a week when I changed his diaper in the front seat of that Ford Escort and he’d christened his father’s steering wheel with this stream of pale gold. The Farmer had muttered something about this boy of his being the death of him yet. I’d chuckled, tucked the falling hair behind the ear, ...
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moreHow to Live the Really Best Bucket List
On Tuesday, August 28 th, 2012When I’d picked up the magazine lying on the seat next me, the pages fell open to this editor’s column — about his bucket list. “We all have a bucket list – whether it is written down or tucked somewhere in the back of our mind just waiting for the right moment to transition over to ink on paper.” ...
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moreWhen You Are Finding it Hard to Keep Up {Chased by Grace}
On Monday, August 20 th, 2012They say that there are 62 lego pieces for every one person on the planet. And I’m thinking that with that thrifted rubbermaid tub found at the Sally Ann, this house has several thousand over that ratio. There are legos across the basement floor and under the boys’ bed and scattered ones abandoned in the bottom of drawers, remnants of pockets and dreams. ...
