I never expected that I would be a stay at home mom. I never dreamed that I would find myself isolated in a city where I know no one because a pandemic has forced us to isolate since we arrived here. I’m not even sure how to begin new friendships with the risk assessment analysisContinue reading “Discernment in Coronatide”
Tag Archives: loss
Pandemic Longest Night and Christmas Eve Worship
If you’ve been clicking around From My Kitchen or found my newsletter earlier this week in your email, this is old news to you. You are busy, dear pastor. You have already seen this. You can go do the many other things on your list. If you were not so lucky to find these thingsContinue reading “Pandemic Longest Night and Christmas Eve Worship”
Twinkly Lights in Blue Pandemic Days
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”
Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19
Though I didn’t do anything with the text last week, I’m still thinking about the question Kathryn Matthews posed in her weekly musings in the United Church of Christ’s Sermon Seeds about the grieving parents in the Passover story. How is this OK? How is any of this OK? How can God come along andContinue reading “Pandemic Prayers for Proper 19”
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”
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”
A Simple Graveside Ritual
Graveside services are often very, very short. Some simple prayers are repeated by the presiding minister. Tears are shed, but there isn’t much else for the grieving family to do. There is nothing asked of them. There’s no action for them to take. What if that’s what the family needs most? They need something toContinue reading “A Simple Graveside Ritual”
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”
Waves of Grief after Waves of Nausea
Grief is my constant companion. It is there every day and every moment even when there is a smile plastered to my face. Sometimes I choose not to acknowledge it. I don’t want it to dominate and there are still other times when it rides along in the sidecar of my whole existence. For theContinue reading “Waves of Grief after Waves of Nausea”
Cooking with Elsa 