Apples of Gold

A Tender Legacy

As part of a six-week course I am doing, I was asked to take a test to discover which emotions most strongly drive me. When the results came back, they stopped me in my tracks. The two emotions that rose above all others were empathy and compassion. They surprised me. Not because I have thought…

He is Risen!

There is an ancient and joyous Paschal greeting that has echoed across generations of Christians, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and proclaiming hope, new life, and the victory of life over death. He is risen!He is risen indeed! It is such a simple exchange, and yet it carries the weight of everything Easter means….

Love Like That

The cross is a hard thing to look at. It is rough wood. Cruel wood. A place of suffering and shame, where human beings were nailed and left to die. There is nothing gentle about it. Nothing soft. Nothing in the scene itself that would draw us in by beauty. It is a place of…

Love Kneels Down

On Maundy Thursday, I find myself deeply moved by the thought that love kneels. Not proud.Not distant.Not hurried.But low enough to wash feet.Low enough to serve.Low enough to remain tender, even with suffering already gathering at the door. There is something about that image that reaches into me in a very personal way. That on…

A Year of Reflection

I have often thought that life seems to move in ten-year chapters. The first ten years are our childhood, when so much is formed in us quietly and deeply, long before we understand what is shaping us. The second ten are our teenage years, when we begin reaching for our own identity and trying to…

The Other Way Around

Here Down Under, everything always feels a little bit the other way around. While the northern hemisphere is welcoming Easter in springtime and Christmas in winter, we Australians are doing our own upside-down version of things — Christmas in summer heat, with sunburn, salads, and trips to the beach. Then Easter arrives with cooler mornings,…

The Gift of Lament

There is something deeply human and deeply biblical about lament. The Psalms have taught me that faith is not made up only of praise and singing, but also of sighing, longing, questioning, and bringing our sorrows honestly before God. They do not ask us to tidy ourselves up before we come. They do not pretend…

Writing While Able

I have lived for some years now with a certain kind of uncertainty, the kind that quietly follows me even on ordinary days. It is not always loud. Sometimes it sits far enough in the background that I can almost forget it is there. Life feels normal for a while. I breathe a little more…

Tender Beginnings

Although the day might have seemed like just another day, to me it felt like the world had paused for a moment, holding its breath for something extraordinary. The day felt charged, alive, touched by something beyond the usual routine of life. It was one of those rare moments where I could feel the earth…

The Stories We Keep

There is something about flour on the bench and the smell of cardamom and cinnamon in the air that loosens old stories. When I bake with my granddaughter in my kitchen, I notice that I begin again.The same stories. The same tone. Often the same hand gestures. I tell her about my grandmother’s kitchen —…