My profound challenge for 2020 is to finally tackle writing about what’s happened in our lives over the past fifteen years. Some would call it writing a memoir, to me it feels more like forcing myself to strip naked and take a flying leap off of a cliff while figuring out where to go from…

So many happy memories of days gone by are gathered on this Christmas tree. Most of our family ornaments are hand made by generations of dear ones. I’ve carried them with me everywhere we’ve journeyed, seemingly farther and farther away from home. Like the loved ones who gifted them, every ornament has a deeper story….

December 20, 2019                                    Advent 3 photo by mjh+ Tonight on the Eve of the Winter Solstice, I sense a solitary pause in the evening air. All is still and all is bright as we approach the longest night and the shortest day of the year. For as long as I can remember, my two kids…

Thirty years ago on December 15, 1989, one of the coldest subzero blizzards on record swept through Kansas. It was so dangerous to go outside that the Atchison Public Schools canceled their Friday classes on that day. So, of course, Maria and Rick decided to elope to the Doniphan County Courthouse in Troy, KS and…

12:12 a.m. on 12/12/19  mjh+ On this shining night… On this shining night, the light of the full moon was so bright at midnight, I woke up believing that a new day is dawning. I’m often awakened in the middle of the night and this night was no exception. The shared experience of Middle Night…

Artwork by Diane Jones, Scribe   Advent: Songs for the Way of Love+ In December, we begin again with the holy season of Advent. This is a centering time of the year, a still point as the light changes and our hearts long for meaningful connections. In our church family tradition ringing around the world,…

Praise: Songs for the Way of Love+  photo by mjh+ Ordinarily when I create a SftWoL+ playlist, I spend days and weeks going through a long list of songs and musicians to pick a certain order of songs to flow together toward a theme.  It was my intention this week to create a 2 hour…

Imagine: Songs for the Way of Love+ photo by mjh+ Wake Up Everybody Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes Wake up everybody no more sleepin’ in bed No more backward thinkin’, time for thinkin’ ahead The world has changed so very much From what it used to be There is so much hatred war an’…

dear ones, This playlist has taken me longer to pull together. Home is a raw and tender topic for so many of us. Since 2002, the kids and I have had to move away from our homes in three states in order to follow the path of my calling to ministry; or to put it…

“I believe to make our world better, each and every individual has to be the love and be the solution. The world is in a crisis, there seems to be more divides than ever. Some are crippled by poverty, others by depression, lack of purpose, worry and fear of failure. This process has put most…