Reflections

Our Daughters: Corner Pillars or Shapely Wildflowers?

by Shawn May 12, 2012
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My daughter Lucy pulls herself up into the top bunk in the hallway of the bus and pulls the shade. Later, I peek my face in and ask her what she’s up to. But at first she doesn’t hear me – her face is intent on her next drawing. In the corner of her bunk [...]

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The Redwoods Asked Me, “What If Your ‘Today’ Must Die?”

by Shawn May 9, 2012
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The Redwood trees stood massive and solemn, some close to 300 feet tall, some over 500 years old. I felt small and insignificant under their kind shadows. Like an ant. Or a long-forgotten worry. They once stood silently while the first Europeans docked their ships and slid small boats up on to the sand of [...]

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Hair Falling

by Shawn May 7, 2012

to my aunt, whose strength and resolve in her battle against cancer gives all of us hope and courage when hair falls into a pile it does not fall straight the way it hung from your head just moments before the muggy May night hangs from the streetlights      leans around corners     taps on the large [...]

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The Life of Faith: Less Sense, Added Meaning

by Shawn May 4, 2012
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I have made some very expensive transactions on this trip. Nearly everywhere we’ve gone, I’ve gained something, and I’ve left something behind. In Virginia, we gained a kind friend who treated my kids like they were his grandchildren. He built a small fire under that southern night sky for marshmallow roasting. And I left a [...]

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Change the Course of a Life: Be an Encourager

by Shawn May 3, 2012

There are plenty of completely legitimate reasons not to encourage someone. Encouragement could lead them to some kind of disastrous failure, the kind from which people do not easily recover. Then I would feel responsible and guilty. And I’m not a big fan of feeling responsible for someone else’s downfall. I enjoy feeling guilty even [...]

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Do Something Irresponsible

by Shawn April 16, 2012

I sat quietly in a mall somewhere in Nashville a few weeks ago and looked at my ringing cell phone. The call I had been waiting for. “Hello?” The guy’s name was Kevin – I had never spoken to him before, but a shared friend had connected us, thought we should talk. And as I [...]

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The Joy that Accompanies Empty Pockets

by Shawn April 9, 2012
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We walked up Tchoupitoulas Street towards the French Quarter in New Orleans. The sky? Blue cotton candy. The breeze? A cool sheet. The streets? Alive and beautiful and carefree. We walked up Tchoupitoulas Street towards the French Quarter on that day between Good Friday and Easter and I noticed a man sitting with his back [...]

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