Tag: Christian

Apologies, Dear Ones — Living Intentionally

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn Living Intentionally, Uncategorized1 Comment

Apologies dear friends, acquaintances, neighbors, lost pets, vendors, insurance companies, politicians, and things that I needed to remember in 2019. I have deleted your emails. My email inbox has for a long time been a file cabinet that never gets sorted. I hang onto letters from friends and prayer requests and photos. Those all seem worthy of saving. I have saved receipts. Possibly important. Regrettably, I also hang onto articles I wanted to refer to someday and then forget. I hang onto blog posts that seem full of wisdom. I hang onto the community garden newsletter and the city newsletter and …

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Banana Slugs and Bacon

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

We recently went on our first camping trip since COVID hit. We had forgotten how to do almost everything. Where does this tent pole go? What did we once pack for dinner? How much ice goes in the ice chest? Thank goodness I keep lists! Once we got there and figured out which end was up, however, the days were filled with small moments brimming with grace. Conversations with longtime friends who we have seen infrequently since they …

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My Ancestors Owned Slaves

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Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. Proverbs 3:13-14 My ancestors owned slaves. It is an uncomfortable truth that has nothing to do with my lived experience. Yet it is my heritage, unknown to me for most of my life. I want to believe these forebearers were kind masters. That they treated their few slaves as workers rather than property. Even so, there is no getting around the fact that they were the masters. These God-fearing Christians somehow thought it was ok, even necessary, to own other people. When they died, they included these enslaved people …

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Essential Hope

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn Current EventsLeave a comment

Even if you didn’t comprehend the language, the anger was unmistakable. The man being interviewed had just lost his home, his neighborhood to Russian bombs. His face was contorted with pain and the desire for justice. The faces that have filled newscasts and news pages in recent weeks are all you need to see. Their expressions tell the story of Ukraine at war. Anger and grief are well represented. Maybe more prevalent, however, are blank expressions. They may signify confusion or …

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An Unexpected Yam

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn Uncategorized4 Comments

We have a yam that never made it onto a holiday table, but it has done much to nourish me. And it has done so without extra calories!The forgotten yam was in my pantry when I noticed it had begun to sprout. Normally, a sprouting tuber would go directly into the compost bin. This one was leafing out nicely, though, and I remembered how pretty yam vines can be. So I placed it on my windowsill, thinking that at some point I would plant it. It has been there ever since.It continues growing without any help from me. In its own …

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Getting Back to the Future

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I got my second vaccination the other day. I underestimated how exciting that would be. It is gradually dawning on me that it will soon be safer to see people and do things. Of course, caution is still advised until more people get vaccinated and the rates of infection drop. Nonetheless, it is thrilling. Headlines speak of when we can get back to normal. But what will normal really look like after a year in …

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Simply Grateful

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn Uncategorized1 Comment

For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God... 2 Corinthians 1:12 It is a new year, and the call has gone out to simplify our lives. It seems every other email I have received lately was an article on six ways to simplify my life or 10 great products that would do the simplifying for me.  Many …

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Silent Night

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Silent Night has long been a Christmas favorite. Did you know it started with a broken organ? A broken church organ in an Austrian town more than 200 years ago. The words were penned by a young priest in Oberndorf, a reflection on the night angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside. He wanted the poem set to music for Christmas Eve mass. But the church …

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Welcoming Winter

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Do you know what day it is?  I still have a problem remembering. This has been a problem ever since we began staying at home those many months ago. Our routines changed. We shopped for groceries online. Church services, study and social groups started meeting online. The usual markers of time were missing. Our neighborhood’s end-of-summer Antique Faire was cancelled. The first day of school was anticlimactic because it was virtual, too. Here in California, the weather stayed hot …

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