When I reflect on the Advent/Christmas season, I hate---or should I say loathe---and love many aspects of this time.

Even if we stay in Christian community, like I did, healing can take years. Sadly, that feeling of not belonging still runs deep in my veins. 

However, the feeling also developed into a blue hot flame like the one that once burned my arm. It now fires in my soul every day.

Souls are weary. But not my four quiet maples lit up like autumn campfires. They stand solid, silent, striking. My trees hold a clever model for caring soul care through connection, rhythm, and rootedness.

A poem about a weekend with old and new friends at a spiritual formation conference in Wichita in 2024.

Art box, Airbnb hastily “cleaned,”

All will be well,

Books backlit in a window, books and more books,

Boundaries, bed bugs, belonging.

Cinnamon brooms,

Coffee in hand-sized cups with sippy lids, chaos-capable,

We all have a soul, and we are both passively and actively formed. 

 We choose how we are spiritually formed moment by moment, even by the pancakes we eat!

As I looked up at the trees, I thought about the question asked in Sunday’s sermon, "What could you discern with God to stop doing in this next season?" 

Three simple habits I’ve adopted over the past decade that have made it possible to love my real life. These are not cures or catch-alls, but they are Christian-based spiritual practices to practice imperfectly.

When we stop fighting the discipline of rest and create intentional space for it, we begin to crave the gifts it brings.

Guest post by Kate Motaung.

Dear Grief,

I shudder to refer to you as “dear.” Yet you have been with me for so long that you have become a part of me, which I suppose entitles you to this term of affection, though my heart grants it unwillingly. You are an enigmatic and elusive creature

Guest post by Christiana Peterson. When art is your career, it is easy to lose sight of the reasons for creating in the first place. When the art you love becomes enmeshed with publishing, promoting, money, marketing, and trying to sell yourself in order to sell your work, it can be a messy weaving that becomes difficult to untangle.