Minutes to Moments

“From her I had come to feel an unqualified acceptance which had little to do with my being good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, close by or far away. In her I had come to sense a love that was free from demands and manipulations, a love that gave me a sense of belonging that [...]

What shall I say about the Irish?
The utterly impractical
Never predictable
Sometimes irascible
Quite inexplicable Irish?
Strange blend of shyness, pride and conceit
And stubborn refusal to bow in defeat
He’s spoiling, and ready to argue and fight
Yet the smile of a child fills his soul with delight
His eyes are the quickest to well up with tears
Yet his strength is the [...]

The value of persistent prayer is not that God will hear us, but that we will finally hear God. William McGill

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall [...]

From my almost-ten-year-old daughter: “If you can’t imagine something, you’ve detached yourself from God.”

The gate of heaven is everywhere.

Frederick Buechner on the Transfiguration:  “Even with us something like that happens once in a while.  The face of a man walking his child in the park, of a woman picking peas in the garden, of sometimes even the unlikeliest person listening to a concert, say, or standing barefoot in the sand watching the waves [...]

As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be okay.
Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies, and fortunately when there aren’t any sugar cookies we can still [...]

Making the decision to have a child–it’s momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. - Elizabeth Stone

Scrapping a career to raise kids is every bit as hard as being away from them 9 to 5.  But there is no having it all.  Whatever you opt for, something gets cheated.  That’s what’s known as the human condition.  The ultimate peril is motherhood, loving someone more than you love yourself. – Patricia Volk