This year, I’ve traveled through the desert on horseback with a shepherd and an alchemist. I’ve fished the lakes of Canada by canoe, attended a boy’s boarding school, learned the dance of the herons along a river, sat in the kitchen of a distressed and impoverished wife in Michigan, explored vocation, followed a friend asContinue reading “Little Joys—Books”
Tag Archives: advent
Little Joys—Reruns
I’m still recovering from whatever bug decided to bless me with a head cold the last couple of days, so don’t expect anything brilliant here. Do you know what’s great? Reruns. Reruns and streaming TV with vast catalogs of movies I’ve already seen. Comfort food TV. That’s what’s great. I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life”Continue reading “Little Joys—Reruns”
Little Joys—Long-Term Memory
Mary, and every other mother ever, treasured these things in her heart. It’s what we do. We treasure away the miraculous and the mundane. They are the building blocks to our lives’ meaning, and it’s all because of long-term memory.
Little Joys—Old Photos
You can tell any story you want from old photos, but the true magic of these frozen moments are the facts and memories of the lives that animated those images.
Little Joys—Bodies That Can Heal
One of our kids stayed home sick after we stayed up super late seeing Hamilton last night (It was so good!). With so many viruses floating around lately, I was hoping our immune systems would prevail through yesterday so we could all enjoy the show. We just made it. My guess is that Elvis wasContinue reading “Little Joys—Bodies That Can Heal”
Little Joys—German Food
We are on our way to see Hamilton tonight, thanks to my mom and dad for an excellent Christmas present, and to begin our night we are eating the fare of our heritage: German! Here’s to Haufbrauhaus and Hamilton! Prost!
Little Joys—Home
After a full weekend staying with family and enjoying the pleasures of being together with those I grew up with, it was also so good to come home. I didn’t used to be such a homebody. Early on in our marriage, we would spend nearly every weekend staying over at one parents’ house or theContinue reading “Little Joys—Home”
Little Joys—The Woods
Until we lived on a property with pine trees, I never appreciated the seasonality of evergreens. Our pines, rhododendrons, arborvitae, and spruce have growing seasons and seasons of dormancy, times when they are more aromatic and times when they drop their needles. We planted some trees in the last few years, and when I seeContinue reading “Little Joys—The Woods”
Little Joys—Mugs
If you are like the vast majority of Americans, at some point during the day, you consume a hot beverage… why not drink it out of a meaningful mug? We have a mug problem in our house. We have not one, not two, but three locations in our kitchen where you can find mugs. BrandonContinue reading “Little Joys—Mugs”
Little Joys—Music
I challenge you to find anything as magical as making music. You can gather a hundred high school musicians on a stage and, even though they resist cooperation in every other setting by their very nature of being teenagers, they will let down their need for individuality in order to lend their voice or instrumentContinue reading “Little Joys—Music”