Tag: hope
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Tea Time with Mandy: A Pause in the Middle of the City
There are places in New York City where the noise does not disappear, but it changes character. Where urgency loosens its grip just enough to remind you that you are allowed to pause. Sant Ambroeus is one of those places. Outside, the city presses forward—crowds folding into one another beneath towering buildings, voices rising and…
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Peace in the Storm: When Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Forgot
There are storms that roar in with wind and thunder, and then there are storms that arrive in silence—the kind that unravel you from the inside out long before you realize something is wrong. Trauma does that. It doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it whispers through numbness, fog, and dissociation—through a body that remembers pain even…
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Peace in the Storm: Taste and See That the Lord Is Good
Before you settle in, I want to invite you into a small ritual, one that warms the body and steadies the heart. Make yourself a cup of hot tea. If it’s morning or afternoon, I personally recommend Rooibos Red Tea with a splash of pomegranate and raspberry. It’s bright, soothing, and full of quiet strength.…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: When the Bells Broke Through the Darkness
“Till, ringing, singing on its way… The world revolved from night to day.” There comes a point in every soul’s journey where despair whispers louder than truth. Where the night feels thicker than morning. Where the world seems too far gone to ever find its way back to peace. That’s where Longfellow was when he…
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The Isolated Are Devoured
Why We Cannot Survive Without Family, Community, or the Body of Christ. There comes a moment in every life when the weight becomes too heavy, the silence too loud, and the loneliness too sharp to ignore. A moment when even the strongest among us feel the ground give way beneath our feet. It is in…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: When Hate Mocks the Song
“And in despair I bowed my head: ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said, ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men.’” There comes a moment in every person’s life when the weight of the world finally breaks through the outer shell we’ve tried so hard…
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🌾 The Grace of Ordinary Days: Finding Gratitude in the Weight and Wonder of Life’s Storms
This past year has taught me more about thankfulness than perhaps any other season of my life. Not the easy kind of gratitude — the one that flows naturally when everything’s going right — but the kind that aches in your chest and trembles through your prayers. The kind that whispers, “Thank You, God,” even…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — The Sound of a Nation Divided
“I heard the bells on Christmas day, Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow There’s something haunting about those words — written in a time when the world had grown weary of bloodshed. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned them amid…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — A Thanksgiving Reflection
As the holidays draw near, I feel a stirring deep within my soul — not merely for the glow of Christmas lights or the aroma of pumpkin pie wafting from the oven, but for something far more profound. Gratitude. Reflection. Hope. And perhaps, a quiet call for peace in a world once again at odds…
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Life or Death: The Choice That Defines You
Let’s be honest — the world’s loud right now. It screams at you from every direction: “Do what makes you happy.” “Live your truth.” “There is no right or wrong.” But what if I told you that “your truth” could be the very thing leading you to destruction? Sin doesn’t show up in chains —…
Country Girl Gone City 