October 18, 2023
“You ok?”, my husband asked. “You said you’ve felt a little…angsty…lately.” Yeah. I’m ok. And yeah, angsty is probably the right word. I’m a Gen X girl. Angst is the stamp of my life. Let’s see…we have Russia still pummeling Ukraine; Hamas killing innocent Israelis and Israel creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We have firearm violence as the number one killer of children in the United States and a House so divided they cannot even complete a simple junior...
September 24, 2023
As a very young child, my dad would lie next to me as I was falling asleep, and I would say to him, “Daddy, tell me a story.” It was in those twilight moments when I learned about my dad’s childhood, my grandfather’s bakery, and my aunts and uncles. I believe most of those stories were true, but from time to time, I am sure there were embellishments or made-up stories to intrigue yet soothe me as I found peaceful...
August 21, 2023
I am trying to be open minded, and humble enough to listen to disparate views, but if I am honest, I am just plain curious. So, I have been tuning into the sermons from the church we left in Indiana; left partly because we found ourselves questioning, frustrated, and even hurt by what we were hearing, and partly because I took a new job hundreds of miles away. Anyway, I’m in the midst of listening to a series on “deconstruction“....
July 2, 2023
This week, The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down two decisions that synergistically amount to a blank check to legalize discrimination and embolden divisiveness and hatred in the name of religion. In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis the court ruled in favor of a Christian woman who claimed her religious convictions would be violated if she had to develop a website for a gay couple. Of note, this case was based on a hypothetical gay couple. This...
July 2, 2023
Matthew 11:28-30 (AMP) 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.” For years I have read these verses and considered them as some kind of personal promise...
June 28, 2023
Seven days ago, we said goodbye to our very sweet 12-year-old Goldendoodle, Einstein. A few weeks ago we noticed that he was having trouble maintaining his balance, his back legs sliding out from under him. A week after that, he had a seizure. It was traumatic for all of us. We took him to the emergency vet who offered admission, sedation, MRIs, and continuous IV anti-seizure medications. I sat in the sterile confines of the vet ER office with my...
May 27, 2023
Alright y’all, welcome back to my crazy little brain. Yesterday, my dad sent me a podcast about the Four Stages of Faith. It’s worth a listen. If you don’t have time, check out this great summary chart. The Four Stages of Faith are simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and harmony. Author Brian McLaren obviously knows there are a lot of us doing this deconstruction/detangle thing. And it’s bewildering. His framework helps me see that I am normal, this is a process, and...
May 7, 2023
Warning: I am angry. Last night there was another mass shooting. This time in Texax (again). At least 8 dead, many others wounded. Unmeasured psychological trauma for the hundreds involved, lives forever changed for witnessing and responding to chaos and murder. Politicians literally copying and pasting their “thoughts and prayers” messages once again. It’s a chilling and disgusting cycle. Today’s reading is Matthew 6:5-15, The Lord’s Prayer. I’ve taken the liberty to give a modern spin on Jesus’ words. Hang...
May 6, 2023
I got the chance to talk to a dear friend this morning. We are both surgeons, wives, and moms. We talk about our kids, our work, our marriages. And we talk about our faith. Or what’s left of it anyway. We both grew up in similar types of churches and shared a good number of similar conservative beliefs. But throughout the last few years, we have both been searching in our faith journey. Questioning, leaning in in some areas, and...
April 30, 2023
We have arrived at a time in US history in which the ink isn’t even dry on one story of a mass shooting, and another one has happened. There are so many mass shootings, that we can’t recall the cities and places where they occur, we have to look them up. There are entire websites dedicated to collecting data and documenting the tragedies, one after the other. It’s a continuous news cycle of senseless death. Sadly, our American appetite for...