For This Child, on the Subject of Death
Here is a memory.
I am one of the early arrivals in the school pickup line on a wintry afternoon late in 2019. The tiny parking lot is bounded by a gray concrete wall built against a hill ahead, the school building to my left, and a sere upward slope of brittle grass on my right. Aside from the silhouetted movements of the other drivers, nothing moves in my monochromatic surroundings; I turn the engine off and let my mind wander.
Read More ›Advent, Week Four: The Peace of Pierced Souls
“He wants us to have peace. Happiness. Not to bring suffering on ourselves.”
Read More ›Taper of Grief
Outside, coursing in from the west, the amber and violet gloaming has begun.
Dinner is over, and I sit at the piano. Behind me a stream of girlish laughter twirls and dashes through the living room in response to the film music I’m playing, but my own shoulders are weighted, as if a hollow has been carved between them, and lead poured in.
Read More ›Writing Lessons from Monet
On one of the golden swan song days of last October, my husband and I took our two small daughters to see the Claude Monet: Truth of Nature exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. Afterward, the road home was illuminated by a parting shot from the ripe autumn sun. The signs and curbs and fences stood fully exposed to it, as if they were having their faces washed by light.
Read More ›Alleluia
I’m embarking on what may well prove a fool’s errand tonight with this essay (for can one ever really explain the glimpses that catch at one’s heartstrings?)—but at the very least, it will hopefully excuse any odd contortions of my face and throat if we happen to sing this “Alleluia” someday in the same space.
Read More ›Beauty Beyond the Reach of Shadow
[Editor’s note: We’ve decided to take the last few days of 2018 to repost some of our favorite pieces of writing that showed up on the blog this year. This third and final piece we’re sharing is “Beauty Beyond the Reach of Shadow” by Amy Baik Lee, a rumination on The Hiding Place and Betsie ten Boom’s relentless and unsentimental commitment to beauty in the face of deep suffering.]