Level Up!

Do you anticipate or dread birthdays? For me, birthdays bring up such mixed emotions. I often feel grateful for another year of life, adventures, and sanctification. But some years bring up feelings of ennui. I ask myself, “What do I have to show for myself this year?” or “Why doesn’t my life feel like I…

Defeated by my Dryer

My appliances are ganging up on me. They must plot at night to see the best way to derail my carefully laid plans. There’s no other explanation for it. ACT I – Characters and Conflict Introduced  Two weeks ago, my year-old dryer unexpectedly quit working. After three hours of trying to dry one load of laundry, I…

Cheeky Returns!

I have my own elf on the shelf tradition. Set up the most ridiculous scenarios ever to entertain your roommates. I got to introduce my new roomies to this small joy of Christmas… and they totally took to it! Cheeky, the apt name of my elf on a shelf, continues his yearly antics this year,…

Calculus

Asymptote. Logarithm. Derivative. I have not seriously interacted with such words in over a decade. And yet here I sit, in my brother’s undergraduate Calculus class, listening to a lecture filled with mathematical jargon. I watch as the professor — displaying an infinity necklace and a love of numbers — goes over the quiz, engages with questions,…

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is one of my favorite words. It ranks in my mind alongside onomatopoeia, hyperbole, and synecdoche both in multi-syllabic rhythm and definitional genius! Juxtaposition is the perfect term for certain situations. It is a noun meaning “an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.”  Two things that shouldn’t…

The Benefits of Singleness

At times, I am lonely. I see sweet, everyday interactions between spouses and I long to experience such tenderness myself. Sometimes, my longing feels overwhelming. But most of the time I think my life is pretty awesome. I have a few dear friends who help remind me of the benefits of singleness and childlessness during those…

Parsing Struggles

When discussing sin and struggles, the tense of the verb matters. I’ve heard loads of testimonies over the years and it seems that most people speak about their struggles in the past tense. They say things like, “When I first became a Christian, I struggled with/was addicted to/ was beset with _______.” We, as the…

Traffic and Surprises

“Holy Traffic, Batman!” That was the start of a particularly distressing series of texts last night. I was meeting friends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a special Friday the 13th event. I thought I was meeting four friends, not three million of my closest friends! I left work, drove toward Disney, sat in traffic for…

A Galaxy Far, Far Away…

I met R2D2 at work today. No joke. See? He came delivering an important message to some kids I was working with. He brought a storm trooper and Darth Vader with him (who incidentally had foreign accents… which made me giggle!) It was a delightful pause in a hectic day. I loved seeing the looks…