Today, Friday August 2, 2024, is my last "free" day before I start back to work teaching middle school English/Language Arts at Holy Spirit Catholic School. I hope you have had a nice summer, filled with lots of relaxation and peace. I'm in the mood to reflect on this summer's growth, which happened because of...books. 

I kicked off my summer reading with The Relentless Elimination of Hurry. When I first began reading this book, I knew that I had a nice flowing rhythm in my day; I didn't hurry much at all. Well, John Mark Comer pretty much came in and wrecked all of my furniture. And to be honest, I was ready for his wrecking ball because I had been having some thoughts about my LIFE—I was getting lazy and living every day as a somewhat bored Christian, content with Jesus, but thinking that was all I needed, sort of like an entitled rich kid. I knew I was the Father's beloved one, and I was kicking back, eating, drinking, enjoying. But would anyone, looking deep into my life, even realize I was a Christian? What set me apart from anyone else? 
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I mean, surely a Christian should live in a way that was different than say, an atheist. 

Russ and I have been astounded by our grandchildren. They are precious, precious, precious. We love when we hear our backdoor creak open and little footsteps patter down the back hallway. We stop everything and attend to that grandchild. Yes, she always has a parent or two with her, but we don't focus on those people. Ha. We focus on our baby granddaughters.

In the fall my son David made the basketball team at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School. Having a son in a high school sport is sort of like going into Witness Protection. I basically left the life that I knew and focused on getting my freshman to and from practice (5:30-7:30 p.m. every single night, even Fridays!). 

It is now mid-March, and I am reengaging with my life, stepping back into my little routines. 

I have missed this space. I have missed you. 

There are some experiences in my life that I'd like to share with you, but they are not ready yet. They are still simmering. So I decided to reach back into my file and share a pivotal experience that happened to me when I still had a lot of young kids in my home.

Grab a cup of tea, move the wrapping paper off of the couch, tell the children to play downstairs and give yourself the gift of time to read these reflections on the birth of Jesus. They were written by the 8th graders at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Goddard, Kansas.  Instead of going deep into the actual events, I asked the students to reflect more deeply on what it would have felt like to be a certain character. I wanted their inner thoughts. Enjoy!

Confession time: for the past six weeks or so I've been thinking about my children and their people, wondering how the onslaught of the internet is going to affect them long-term. We, as a society, are now tied together yet separate—each person scrolling on their phone, taking in life like a cascading waterfall, allowing it to deluge us with fantastic stories of phenomenal weddings, catastrophic events, sweet moments. 

I see the pull of the internet affecting my children and myself. I want more for them, for me, for us.