This morning, 10-month-old Natalie woke when it was still dark, at 5:30 a.m. I knew she’d already woken at least once before that, because sometime during the night I’d brought her into our bed, where she’d snuggled between my husband and me until that unfortunate moment when she sat up on the bed and said, [...]

When my husband and I were newlyweds, we moved to Portland, Oregon. Those first few weeks in Portland were unsettling — we slept on a stranger’s hardwood floor, caring for her ailing kitten, while adjusting to college. Oregon (not “Or-e-gone” as I quickly learned) was both magnificent and disorienting. As dazzled as I was by [...]

There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and his masters called him Scrubb. I cannot tell you how his friends spoke to him for he had none. So begins one of the most delightful books in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage [...]

A few months ago I published “Hope and Healing Among the Amish” about the tragic schoolhouse shootings in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Now that some time has passed I’ve had a chance dig a little deeper and expand my earlier thoughts. After the shootings, the Amish demolished the schoolhouse where so many suffered and died. I [...]

A church sign near our home reads, “What’s missing from Ch_ _ch? U R !” That sign reminds me of the millions of people across the country who skip church, and I wonder what drives people away or makes them reluctant to come in the first place. For many, I suspect that the idea of [...]