Several years ago, I created a devotional for the grieving and brokenhearted. I called it Twinkly Lights in Blue Days. It’s sat there in my kitchen for anyone that might have wanted it or needed in the years that followed. Grief is close to my heart. My mother died of breast cancer before anyone reallyContinue reading “Twinkly Lights in Blue Pandemic Days”
Category Archives: Cooking up Grief
Naming the Dead
On Friday, I attended a conversation hosted by the BTS Center called It’s Okay to Grieve. Allen Ewing-Merrill, the new Executive Director of this organization, is also a friend, He and his wife and sweet girls arrived in Maine while I was pastoring there to plant a new church within an old downtown congregation. I’veContinue reading “Naming the Dead”
Thirty Three Years Later
Last night, my baby girl couldn’t sleep. It has been many months since she was up every two hours but last night she returned to this familiar routine. She wasn’t always hungry. It seemed that she just wanted to know I was there. It had only been a dream. It was only some trick ofContinue reading “Thirty Three Years Later”
An Expert In My Own Grief
Expert was the word that made me laugh in her email. I do not feel like an expert in anything. I’ve rather owned that pastors are the last generalists. We dabble in this and that. We have a lot of theological thoughts (hopefully) and some leadership skills. We know a little of this and aContinue reading “An Expert In My Own Grief”
Insistent Hope
It is the first Sunday of Advent and I sat in church. I sat in that pew with my baby bouncing on my lap to hear hope insisted upon. Maybe hope needs to come that way. Maybe it will only come by our stubborn determination or it’ll only be something that dances through our daydreams,Continue reading “Insistent Hope”
Grief and Parenting, Part 5678
I didn’t take my daughters to my mother’s grave. I meant to. It was something that I intended to do while we were in the area for my sister’s wedding. My brother had even asked if we could go together. That was something we hadn’t done since he and I were small children, but itContinue reading “Grief and Parenting, Part 5678”
Grief in the Midst of Joy
In just four days, it’ll be thirty-two years since she died. It will be thirty-two years since my mother died. I have to pull out a calculator every year to subtract from the current year. Surely, it hasn’t been that long. It hasn’t been this many years without her. It seems impossible to believe amidContinue reading “Grief in the Midst of Joy”
Twinkly Lights in Blue Days
Jan Richardson lost her beloved husband Gary during Advent. It was more sudden than the wars and rumors of war that the gospel Mark hints it could be. Nobody saw it coming and the grief lingered for many more seasons. In her online Advent devotional two years later, Jan shared that she was looking forContinue reading “Twinkly Lights in Blue Days”
Tell the Children
I sat there with my daughter in my lap turning the pages. Matt de la Pena’s book Love was sent to me by my cousin. She said it reminded her of me. So my heart was already in my throat reading this beautiful poem to my daughter. And then, I turned the page and sawContinue reading “Tell the Children”
How to Pray Before Giving Birth
This afternoon, after church was over, I finished Rabbi Harold S. Kushner’s international bestseller When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It might seem like an odd book to pick off the shelf for a woman who is expecting to deliver a healthy baby girl any day now. I should perhaps be exuding more ofContinue reading “How to Pray Before Giving Birth”
Cooking with Elsa 