What happens when you realize that Christmas just might not be “your” holiday anymore? This question has been tumbling around in my head since mid-November, and I’ve begun to write about it half a dozen times, only to delete everything and close the computer in frustration. It isn’t often that I find myself unable to…
Almost Like Praying
How do you pray for someone if you don’t really believe in God? How do you pray at all? I’ve been asking myself this question over and over this week. I used to pray, with fervor. I prayed, even though, somewhere in the deepest corners of my heart, I wasn’t sure that God was…
Remembering
I’m sitting here remembering something. It smells like 2006 in my office. New Jersey. Someone is wearing LoveSpell. That’s it. That’s what smells like 2006 New Jersey. I’m remembering… Remembering….. It’s amazing to me. One minute, I’m sitting at my desk, writing an email, and the next minute, I’m back in my basement office in…
I Believe…
Belief is a funny thing. We cling to it. Put our faith in it. Use it to define our day to day – to make sense of our world. What we believe is so intrinsically linked to who we ARE that there’s often no separating the two. Belief defines us. It governs how we see…
The Strange and Familiar
Isn't it funny how something that was once so familiar can eventually feel so foreign that it is just...strange? I'm writing this piece from a public computer in our town's public library -- a place that still feels quite foreign to me. It shouldn't, but it does. I practically grew up in my hometown library,…
When Everyone Means EVERYONE
I cried through church today. This is not all that an uncommon occurrence, though it hasn't happened in a good long while...which was nice. My dry eye streak ended this morning. And I wasn't even wearing waterproof mascara. Shit. I have a lot on my mind lately, with the election looming, and fighting for the…
Coup De’Shoe
Shoes, of all things, have been sort of a 'thing' for me over the past year. It started when I walked into the UU church in Boiling Springs, and the pastor there was wearing completely impractical, gorgeous, bright shoes with her robe. Those shoes...looked like rebellion. They made me grin a gleefully naughty grin. They…
Shoe Envy
Susan Hershey is *MUCH* cooler than Christin Kapp. Susan is stylish, confident, popular, wears fabulous shoes and bright lipstick, lots of eyeshadow, and has hair with volume to spare. She goes to the club with her friends, and meets them for dinner after their dance class. She’s COOL. She’s not awkward or anxious, or self-conscious.…
Reaching
“Christin has a song for everything” is a phrase I’ve heard over and over, my entire life. I am, unashamedly, a nut who WILL break into song at any given moment. Consider yourself forewarned. I’ve very literally curated a soundtrack for my life. A certain song can come on the radio, or pop up in…
The Art of Waiting, Revisited
I once preached a sermon titled “The art of Waiting.” We were waiting, as a congregation, for the closing date on our new church building. It had been pushed back for the third time, and we were all getting tired of waiting to move. We wanted our own space. NEEDED our own space. We’d grown…
VoyagersHeart 