How I finally allowed myself to grieve and let her go — High School Bestie I once had a best friend. She was part of the cool crowd, and I was only nearly there. Despite our difference in social standing, I remember how easy it was the instant we met. We were basically the same person: Really bookish, both K-Pop fans, both light-skinned and long-haired…

A pure poetry — I want to write a poem that isn’t peppered with smooth words and fancy speech. I want to write a poem that has never tasted a major thesaurus spree. I want to write a poem that has never experienced the cold touch of retail goods and boutique stores and squared spaces and…

How to feel and live better, according to the Bible — Most of us associate living a healthy lifestyle with a combination of healthy eating habits and getting physically active. Diet and exercise programs tend to advertise the idea that everything in our lives will just fall into place if only we eat the right foods and work our pants off…

At peace but not quite so: A prose-poem — Sometimes I feel like a ghost that hangs around the in between, retreating but not quite running, hoping but really just lingering, observing reality from this dead -end street, imagining objects growing sharp teeth, swallowing every mote of presence, wandering worlds beyond, looking if there is deliverance to some final ground where I’d be just as real and transparent…

Though marketers say otherwise — I’m sorry, you don’t deserve it. You had it hard, but you don’t de- serve it still — to dig in that silver platter and be loaded with excess. There’s nothing under those silverware to base your self-worth on, not even your own rare steak of fat offerings. Just see…

How my child points at my faith or lack thereof. — “I love you, Mommy,” my 4-year-old first said the other night as we cuddle in the dark. “I love you more,” I replied. “Much more than I love books.” “Well I love you more than cars, buses, planes, and uhm, trucks, and trains,” she added. “Well I love you more…

On our addiction to distraction — We’re all on the same boat each suited for different battles though a part of us pretend to be all good and better -clad on defense more so than the rest: We count likes the way we count sheep, we ask Who’s got the most protective shield, Who has the best -looking fittings…

On the practice of bringing every subject to a close — For He knows our [mortal] frame; He remembers that we are [merely] dust. — Psalms 103:14 AMP Dry Bones Tonight’s revision covers the word ‘skull’. The bold black-and-white illustration of our cranium was unnerving, even to me. “It’s scary,” my four-year-old expressed. “I know, right,” I agreed. Almost immediately, I was bothered…

My intentions for building the rest of our lives — “This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.” — Elizabeth Elliott I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of home I intend to build for a while now. My mind has cleared up ever since I took charge of the spaces outside our master bedroom. These are some of the changes I’ve made so far: