Dear Nduta, You know that letter I wrote? You won’t get it. Nor will you get your birthday card because I mailed it too late. I got the news this week that you’ve moved away from the area where Compassion works. It was such a shock, and I can’t tell you how sad we are […]
Still Saturday: How to be More Compassionate
“Silent solitude makes true speech possible and personal. If I am not in touch with my own belovedness, then I cannot touch the sacredness of others. Experience has taught me that I connect best with others when I connect with the core of myself. When I allow God to liberate me from unhealthy dependence […]
Compassion International: The Wait is Over
“My friends have all received their sponsors, so my heart feels sad because I don’t yet have a sponsor of my own.” This video moved me to tears. I hope I’m not totally puddled when I get to share the stories of face-to-face meetings. In January, I’ll pack my camera and my laptop when I […]
Compassion: What Makes My Blood Boil?
I stretch out under a crisp white sheet on a soft mattress, head sinking into the pillow. A student will do the procedure today. She applies the electrodes. One… two… three. “Yay, they’re warm,” I say. She cocks her head. “They are? Oh, they were sitting next to the machine.” “You should store […]
hope, compassion and the son of god
Kenya calls me, tugs at my heart. And that year, 2012, Compassion was leading a sponsor tour over my birthday. I could meet Nduta, our sponsored girl. Perfect timing in my eyes. In MY eyes. But compassion isn’t confined to Kenya. It hollows hearts in the most unlikely places, at the most unlikely times–when your […]
Dear Sponsor
Dear New Sponsor, I’ve waited so long. So very long. I wondered what was wrong with me that nobody cared. I had almost lost hope. But then you reached out all the way across the world. You said you love me. And I cry. My mother cries, too. We cry because we are happy now. […]
When You’re Mashed in the Making
I toast a sourdough muffin golden, two halves, and slather them with butter and mounds of strawberry freezer jam. I love the color of strawberries mashed in the making. Jeweled jam. And red, to me, is the color of hope. I steep a cup of Earl Grey Green, inhale the fragrance of bergamot, and settle […]
A Chicken for Christmas
That’s what my husband’s getting. Because he doesn’t need anything. He’ll tell you that himself. And I’m into simple and meaningful this year. And short on time. Or maybe I’ll give him a hammer and a saw. Well, not directly to him. To someone who knows what to do with them. And Grace Face? […]
Window on Writing: The Tenderized Heart
Heart tenderized pounded thin and seasoned with sadness marinates in grief swells with love and drips compassion. Tenderly, Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each […]
Compassion~In More Than 140 Characters
Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you, too. ~Frederick Buechner In His compassion, He entered our skin. It was […]
