books
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Denial Is My Spiritual Practice
It’s around this time of year that Christmas carols start playing in my house. It may be too early for some, but bah humbug to them. There is enough crap to bemoan in the world right now. There is more… Continue reading
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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… Continue reading
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Transforming Outside the Lines
It is more than ten years ago now. It doesn’t seem like it could be that long ago but it was over ten years ago that I found myself searching for my first call. Fresh out of seminary, I was… Continue reading
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Raising White Kids With Curious Questions and GIVEAWAY!!
It was only a few months ago that I found myself returning again and again to sort through the children’s books at Half Price Books. (Don’t get me started on the lack of independent booksellers in Texas. It’s beyond upsetting… Continue reading
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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… Continue reading
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When Twitter Inspires a Story that You Haven’t Told in a Long While
It was only two days ago that #imnotgoingtochurchbecause was trending on Twitter. I read through the whole feed. Or, at least, I read through some of it. It was hard not to noticed the number of hurts that the church has caused… Continue reading
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There’s No Place Like Home
Since I moved to Kansas, I find myself clicking my heels more and more. I have no ruby red slippers but the mantra is the same, “There’s no place like home. There no place like home.” The problem is that I… Continue reading
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Sweet Baby Jesus
“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father… Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding… Continue reading
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Recipe for Learning to Pray
Last week, I finally finished Carol Howard Merritt’s Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation. It really shouldn’t have taken me that long and it is certainly no reflection on the book. It’s me. I had three chapters back… Continue reading
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How We Write Clergy
I am a character in a book. I learned of this news from a Facebook message. A member of the community had written a book and he wanted to know if it was alright to name the church in the book.… Continue reading
Cooking with Elsa 