Saving my life: almost-too-small-to-mention edition.

March blew in like a lion with two wild, wet nor’easters back to back, and no lack of responsibilities at work and at home. As I navigate these blustery days, here’s a handful of tiny things, like bits of glitter, that are saving my life now: That first sip of Darwin’s chai in the morning, […]

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Saving my life: midwinter edition.

Regular readers know that I periodically turn back to the question of what’s saving my life now. I got it from Barbara Brown Taylor, and I always find answering it a helpful exercise, especially in the winter. My friend Anne agrees. And today, at the halfway point of winter, she’s gathering all of us to […]

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Saving my life: honest grace edition.

December has arrived – suddenly, it seems. My neighbors are putting up twinkle lights, and the church sanctuary is full of pine garland, poinsettias and cyclamen. We began Advent on Sunday with the aching melody of “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” and I’m slowly setting out the Christmas decorations and turning back to the words […]

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Saving my life: cold and jet lag edition.

I’ve been back from Oxford for a week, and have been fighting serious jet lag, a wicked head/chest cold and an overflowing email inbox (more than 200 messages while I was away!). Despite the coughing and the catch-up, though, the weather is pure October glory, and I thought it was about time for another list […]

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Saving my life: cusp of fall edition.

“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first of September was crisp and golden as an apple.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows September is here and so is fall, suddenly: classes have started, events are ramping up, and the mornings feel crisp and cool. The light in Cambridge […]

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Saving my life: it’s finally summer edition.

Summer has (finally) arrived – hot and bright, and fuller than I had expected, at least so far. It’s the slow season at work, since classes are out for the summer, but there’s plenty to catch up on, and meanwhile I am squeezing in time with my people whenever I can. Here’s what’s saving my […]

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Saving my life: fitful spring edition.

This spring weather, y’all. I don’t even know. We’ve had temperature swings worthy of my native West Texas: 80s and humid, 40s and raining, nearly every point in between. Swift-moving clouds, flashes of sunshine, sudden downpours and so much misty rain. In some ways, the weather is reflecting the state of my soul: fitful, unsettled, […]

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Saving my life: Morning Prayers edition.

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at Morning Prayers, the brief service held every weekday at Harvard’s Memorial Church, across the Square from where I work. I’ve been a sporadic attendee at Morning Prayers for a while, a more regular one this year, slipping into a pew to soak up the choral music […]

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Saving my life: bleak midwinter edition.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I periodically turn back to the question of what is saving my life now. (I got it from Barbara Brown Taylor’s luminous memoir Leaving Church.) Even pausing to think about the question – or jot down list in my journal at the end of a long day […]

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Saving my life: spasmodic tricks of radiance edition.

Somehow, we’ve landed in mid-December, which is proving both twinkly and hectic, as per usual. Here’s what’s saving my life, as we move through the last stretch of quasi-normal days before the Christmas break: The Sylvia Plath poem from which this post takes its title. “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (the Civil Wars version), on […]

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