Which metaphor is yours?

A few birthday presents from me to you!

My youngest is obsessed with Van Gogh. (Few things cuter than a 4 year-old with a favorite painter.) We went on a pilgrimage to find this painting last week, and the metaphor never fails to get me: the mess up-close becomes the beauty far-away.

Happy almost-birthday to my beloved (and me)! Here are a few great reads for our shared birthday week:

100% not over this beautiful essay by

Elizabeth Berget

: The Women Who Weep In Aldi.

A surprise wedding is the delightful news story we all need this (depressing news) week: Kindergarten teacher gets married in front of her students from Yi-Jin Yu.

I cannot read cancer memoirs, but poetry keeps me afloat.

Andrea Gibson

has become my favorite for spoken word, and Katy Bowser Hutson’s Now I Lay Me Down to Fight: A Poet Writes Her Way Through Cancer is a book I’d give to a friend—the highest recommendation.

If you’ve enjoyed the images of God in the Pray Both Sides reflections for Lent, you’ll love this essay on metaphors for the spiritual life by Debie Thomas: “I have been an onion peeler and an excavator. I hope God will form me into a bridge.” (The Christian Century)

A classic from Frederick Buechner: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.

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