Bottling the Magic

I remember this day five years ago when my husband and I were traveling in Alaska. We had just finished a sea kayaking trip out to a glacier, and we had been fortunate enough to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience of actually paddling up to land that had been uncovered by the melting glacier and being able to dock and step out. We sat there, drinking hot chocolate, on land no human had ever stepped foot on before us. Boating back, the sun on…

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Forever

A number of years ago, something very good happened in my family. I told my teenage daughters “I will remember this day forever…..” and then I said “…. Unless I get dementia….” My girls burst out laughing from the incongruous juxtaposition of the tender words that began my communication and the stark though precise and true words that concluded it. “That’s what you get when your mom is a doctor,” they said to one another. And the funny thing is, I remember our…

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Everything I Know for Sure?

We are the star of our own personal movie called Life, but everything we know is not ours alone, for us alone, or discovered all alone. Everything I know is bound up in the people who make up the We, the Us, of my life. I know what I know because of who they are, what they have modeled for me, what we have experienced together. I can reflect alone, but my reflection is always in conversation with the living world and people…

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Reflection from the Top of the World

As many of you already know I spent six months close to what we might think of us the top of the world. In actuality it was 22 miles south of the Arctic Circle. I had the incredible privilege to serve as the interim pastor of the only church in Shishmaref, Alaska, Shishmaref Lutheran Church. Of course I have written about some of my experiences already on these pages, but today I was reflecting upon what I should write about I remembered some…

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Travels of Life

As I write this, I am up in Post Falls by my father’s side. We are traveling together once again. He always loved to travel. We went to North Dakota from Montana often. Although this was a long drive, we always had fun with my dad singing songs and challenging us to road games such as slug bug and the license plate challenge.

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Tales from the Treehouse

“But now ask the beasts to teach you,And the birds of the air to tell you;Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you,And the fish of the sea to inform you.Which of all these does not knowThat the hand of God has done this?In this hand is the soul of every living thing,And the life of all humankind.”Job 12:7-10I live in a treehouse. No, really, I do! It’s actually a third-floor apartment with a balcony overlooking a nice courtyard, but with a beautiful…

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Gratitude

Be Still... Give yourself a minute or more to quiet down and be in the presence of God.Breathe deeply and feel the peace that comes upon you. Read... Paul and Timothy, writing to the Philippian Christians, say this: Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God's peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7 Good News Translation These…

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