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My practice this week is 30 seconds a day of being in love with myself. This is not a positive affirmation self-love practice. This is an experiment, not in words, but in perspective. There are 86,400 seconds in a day. I’m spending 30 in love. Silly in love. Smiling in love. Eyes lighting up in Read more
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I have a big sister. I adore her. She loves me. She is emphatic that God loves me. Even more outrageously, she tells me that God adores me. Some days I am able to believe it. And the days I do believe, I believe because she said it’s true. Because she is faithful and honest Read more
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I love refrigerator art. Pithy, profound sayings pasted on magnets. It fits my attention span for positivity. (Mom enjoys it, too, which makes for sweet interludes in museum gift shops.) Currently displayed, surrounding Tigger’s exuberance, are magnets my sister contributed. The round, white magnets each highlight a virtue: humble, gracious, loving, generous, patient, kind. Well, Read more
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Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf planet in 2016. Think of everything that’s happened since then. Seriously! Trump, global pandemic, 100+ days of riots in Portland, category four hurricanes, insurrection…. Much is made of the stark political and social divisions within the US. Is it any wonder? With just eight planets, there is no Read more
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Mom once asked me if there was anything I would like her to do to show her support for me as a lesbian. I replied, “Be able to say LGBTQ without stumbling.” That’s what I tell any straight person who asks me how to be an ally. It’s a simple, straight-forward request. It doesn’t require Read more
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Be Still and Know that I Am God. (Psalm 46:10) Prayer position, classically taught, is one of stillness and drawing oneself inward. We ready ourselves by shutting out the world around us so we might enter the gentling, sacred world within. We seek a quiet place, so that what we hear will not distract us. Read more
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Vignette 1 M: Do you like a lot of mayo in your tuna fish or a little? Me: Little, please. M: You don’t prefer Miracle Whip, do you? Me: Definitely not. M: Would you like the bread toasted? Me: Please. I love toast. M: How would you like your sandwich cut? Me: (Laughing in disbelief) Read more
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Surrendering is tough. Think about General Lee surrendering to General Grant at Appomattox. At the beginning of that day, April 9, 1865, Lee still planned to fight. By the end of the day, surrounded and out of options, he had surrendered. It happens that quickly sometimes, even after years of fighting. You wake up believing Read more
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In the weird way that your pocket selects random pictures from your phone, even when you haven’t looked at that particular photo in months, mine chose pictures from last October’s visit to the Lincoln Memorial to show me each time I took my phone out on my morning walk to take a photo of Portland’s Read more
The Hammer Times 