by Gwen | Aug 3, 2020 | Anxiety, Beauty, Challenges, Community, COVID-19, Education, Faith, Grace, Hope, Jesus, Love, Truth, Uncategorized, Unity
I read somewhere that when two people look at the world one may see hate and division and darkness while the other sees beauty, love, and light. The interesting thing is that regardless of who does the looking, it’s the same world. We get to choose how we look at it. No one else chooses for us. But our choices make all the difference in how we walk through this time. The truth is that we still have much more than we have lost. We can choose to bring our best selves to the hard, messy work of finding our way forward though this new landscape, together. We have each other and we have grace. And that is more than enough.
by Gwen | Apr 28, 2017 | Devotions, Education, Family, Grace, Gratefulness Project, Gwendolyn Brooks, Home, Hope, Iran, Jesus, Joy, Justice, Margaret Atwood, Marjane Satrapi, Social justice, Students, Thankfulness, Uncategorized, Writing
Every day I leave the Triple F Ranch to enter the world of academia. In academia I spend a lot of energy in conversations about language, perception, and communication. I do a lot of critical thinking. In between classes I take forays into my writing life where I think about poverty, and justice, and hope and Jesus (and coffee and kids and fiction and memoir and Guideposts devotions). And sometimes I come home with a headache.
by Gwen | Apr 22, 2017 | Authenticity, Education, Friendship, Gratefulness Project, Literature, Love, Motherhood, Paola Gemme, Relationships, Students, Uncategorized
This is Paola. Dr. Paola Gemme. We met when she walked in the door of Witherspoon 108 to teach Immigrant Literature, a class I was in for my master’s. I thought she was fascinating with her impeccable style–she wore these amazing Italian clothes–and...
by Gwen | Jan 27, 2017 | Beauty, Darth Vader, Education, Family, Gratefulness Project, Joy, Kids, Literature, Students, Thankfulness, Uncategorized
That’s what The Gratefulness Project is for me, for us. A happy place. What good came into focus for you this week? Here’s one of my biggies: students.
by Gwen | May 25, 2016 | Church, Comfort, Education, Faith, Family, Freedom, Friendship, Humor, Peace
That old mantra: get out of your comfort zone. And it occurred to him, what is so bad about staying in your comfort zone? A comfort zone actually sounds kind of nice. Is it possible we’ve been getting it wrong all along?
I thought that was pure genius.
by Gwen | Apr 26, 2016 | Acceptance, Brokenness, Community, Education, Equality, Faith, Freedom, Friendship, Hope, Justice, Literature, Mercy, Relationships, Social justice
I simply have to write about this cool thing that happened, because it’s one of those most beautiful kinds of stories that bring hope into the world. And if your committee meetings or Facebook feed or nightly news are anything like mine, you could use one of those stories.
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