cultivating community

By Carmen Acevedo Butcher

The bouquet of shiny red and blue stars jostled each other for position against the car’s soft tan ceiling. The squeak of plastic rubbing plastic made me think about the community that can be nourished by the simple act of buying helium balloons . . .

By Carmen Acevedo Butcher

The student pulled the frayed bill of his dark gray baseball cap over his eyebrows and slumped further down on the brown sofa in my office. He had been late again with a paper . . .

By Emily A. Dause

This post is not a Pollyanna-esque rambling about spreading smiles all over the world.  It's not an abstract inspirational piece with little practical application.  This post is a description . . .

By Carmen Acevedo Butcher

I went strawberry-picking with a friend the other day. The afternoon sun was welcome after so many weeks of cold, wet weather, and when it got too warm, a good breeze blew coolness through the rows of low-growing green plants . . .

By Tish Harrison Warren

I sit in a coffee shop near my high school that I frequented as a teenager. It feels odd to sit in this place as an adult. I feel very different from who I was when I left here. I’ve lived in six different states since then . . .

By Heather Ardrey

I don't know how much you watched the unfolding of events yesterday, but "ground zero" was just about a mile from my house. When they caught the suspect, it was just under a mile from here.  It was one of the strangest days in my life. . .

By Debra Rienstra

In order to prevent us nice Christian teenagers from indulging in let-loose drinking and debauchery on graduation night, a group of parents devised a nefarious plan...

Pages