If you look really close at this picture, you can see the fear in my eyes and the fear in my smile. Fear is a thief. I’ve known him a long time. At times I’ve allowed him to rummage through my chest of drawers taking some priceless items. Other times I’ve attacked him with vengeance […]

Sitting here with a cup of hot tea, on the last day before the Christmas tree comes down, I take a few minutes to ponder, as I do on this day each year, the ways God has been present, real, working… On some days it feels as if 2020 has mocked us. It came in […]

Can you still love me if I didn’t vote like you? That’s an elephant in the room question that will be hovering over our holiday meals, lingering inside our sanctuaries and meandering the halls of our office buildings (if you actually still go to yours) for a while. What has been shocking has been many […]

Unpacking boxes is like trying to chew edamame. It only seems to grow. When I finally got all of the boxes out of the bedroom, I realized I had simply put half of them in the hallway. There’s a different smell here. A mixture of fresh paint and strangers. Poor Sophie has sniffed every orifice […]

Moving… I walked up the stairs, past my bonus-son’s room and down the hall to my office. It had a different sound this morning. It echoed. As if hollow. It even smelled different. A mixture of cardboard and forgotten dust. Why? Because we are moving. There’s a piece of me that is so excited I’m […]

This past Saturday my former husband passed away. I knew he had been sick, but you are never prepared for a moment like this. This moment, however, is layered with a depth of emotion and complexity that has been unsettling. I have been honest about the pains of divorce. I truly do not know how […]

Have you found yourself grateful that this virus struck in the spring? Can you imagine if we were in the dead of winter, kids and all stuck in the house? No grass to run through. No social distancing conversations on the back porch. No bikes to ride through the neighborhood. I heard New York was […]

We’ve had a saying for years in the Jones family. Painfully Beautiful. How in the middle of the darkest places of pain there is always beauty to be found. That thought has pounded through this season of trying to, like you navigate the myriad of emotions while adapting to a new reality. But I love […]

A few years ago Philly and I had the privilege to sit on the steps of the Roman Coliseum during a business trip. Today, Italy and much of the world is being devastated by the coronavirus. Last week as I listened to the news like all of you my heart rate increased. I sensed the […]

My tradition on New Year’s Eve is to grab a blanket and cup of hot tea and close out whatever devotional I’ve read for that year writing down all of the things God has done that I’ve actually been present enough with Him to notice. I usually focus on the big things. But there are […]