Peregrinatio

Trust, the Coin of a Realm

June 24, 2025

“Would you mind watching my stuff for a few minutes while I go to the restroom?” “Of course. I’m happy to.” I have had this interaction in libraries,...

Setting Tables Where We Can

June 13, 2025

Last weekend I had the chance to gather with some good people to discuss important questions in this moment in history, in both formal and informal settings,...

Having without Hoarding

June 6, 2025

Recently we welcomed some friends for a visit. They are globally minded folks whose life paths have crossed ours in a couple of different places on this...

Writing It Again for the First Time

May 9, 2025

I labored mightily over a personal reflection piece that has just been published (“Our Man in Berlin is Not Ours” - print; “What Do We Want with Bonhoeffer”...

Yelling Stones

April 25, 2025

We had a blessed end to Holy Week, managing to sneak off our island of residence to visit the city of Aarhus, a major university town on Jutland, the Danish...

The Sorrowful Mother Was Standing

April 16, 2025

Holy Week is mixed bag of happenings, starting with the lowly heights of Palm Sunday with its unavoidable political overtones continuing into the ordinary...

What Can We Say, What Can We Do

April 10, 2025

The time has changed, here and there. And so have the seasons. Europe finally changed its clocks to summertime, and the hours of sunlight are lengthening....

Brooms and Buckets

March 13, 2025

As I parked my bike in its usual spot in the courtyard, I smelled a terrible smell. Gathering up my groceries from the bike basket, I noticed the smell...

A Handwritten Month

February 28, 2025

February is short, and thus it’s a great month for trying out a new habit. It’s long enough to give a new thing a whirl to see how it goes and short enough...

Snowdrops in the Cemetery

February 7, 2025

Candlemas falls on February 2 every year, forty days after Christmas. Though it’s not a Christian feast that I grew up celebrating, it’s become one of my...

Winter Swimming

February 3, 2025

I opted out of the Saturday invitation to go winter swimming, but the reports back were glowing and sustained through the remainder of the day. “Something...

How to Tense Verbs into Prayer

January 17, 2025

The news was gutting, and I was months late to learning it. She and I hadn’t corresponded for a while, which was not altogether unusual. We were in the...

Jigs and Tiny Routines

January 10, 2025

I love — and, if I’m honest, also tempted to hate (yes; keep reading) — seeing people’s year-end reflections and new year’s intentions shared on social media...

Practicing Joy, and a Belated Happy New Year

December 16, 2024

The Third Sunday in Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday, is awash in the pale pastel color of pink, a break in the month-long penitential purple in the first...

My Socials

November 29, 2024

I’ve been changing a lot of my engagement on social media recently in ways that have been good and life-giving. I thought I’d reflect a little on it and...

Some more thoughts about Bonhoeffer

November 21, 2024

I’ve been wrestling for months to understand what’s coming with the new Bonhoeffer film, opening in theaters tomorrow. Friends and contacts have asked for my...

Why I Keep Writing Here

October 30, 2024

I have three bullet points to share today: widows, postage, and why I keep writing here. The Importunate Widow It’s a big week ahead for the United States....

Persimmons, just in time

October 25, 2024

We had fall break last week, or “Week 42” as it is referred to here by many. My husband had a work trip to Iceland, and so the kids and I tagged along with...

Michaelmas and the Holy Mackerel

September 29, 2024

Merry Michaelmas, all. Our household effects were delivered Friday. This deluge of belongings, which I called “stressful Christmas” in an earlier note,...

Pilgrims on the Path

September 17, 2024

The weather has turned cooler here, although the dreaded rains people keep talking about have yet to begin. Autumn colors are beginning to show on the...

Saying "Weeks" at the One Month Mark

August 30, 2024

Just as a new parent counts the minutes, then hours, then days, then weeks of their new baby’s life, we have now lived here in Copenhagen for one month. I’ll...

Making for Paper Island

August 26, 2024

I took myself out on a walk yesterday, and the city center was packed with tourists. We live close to some of Copenhagen’s most iconic locations, and it is a...

The Happiest People on Earth

August 16, 2024

Our first preliminary shipment arrived recently, and as the delivery crew heaved six huge, heavy, sealed boxes into our building’s historically narrow...

All the King's Horses

August 12, 2024

practicing what's ordinary to be ready for extraordinary service in the world

What Sleep Can Do

August 5, 2024

We’ve been in Copenhagen almost a week, and last night I had my first decent night of sleep in I don’t know how long. It’s amazing what sleep can do to one’s...

Hej from Copenhagen

July 31, 2024

We’ve arrived safely to our new assignment in Copenhagen, Denmark. My husband has already headed off to his first day at work, the kids are still asleep in...

"Have you acted?"

July 9, 2024

Recently, after listening to me recount a story, a friend asked, “Have you acted?” There was a marked pause between my storied pontificating and her...

Marching into May

May 1, 2024

April, come she will, and there she went. Here we are, marching into May, preparing to move again this summer. The “again” in the previous sentence is...

Birds of Prey, Food in Jars

March 22, 2024

The 2nd overdue notice came in from the public library. I had already limped my renewals along as long as I dared. I did not want to surrender these precious...

Readers

January 18, 2024

I've begun wearing readers, those magnifying spectacles that help a middle-aged person to see what's close again. I've mostly been ill-at-ease in...

Newsletters in a New Year

January 9, 2024

Welcome to another year of Peregrinatio! Thank you for being a subscriber. I hope to serve you as a reader too. I've been trying to think explicitly about...

Rest and Resolution

December 1, 2023

I'm not an Advent purist. Our Christmas tree is already up. But I cherish this liturgical season's restful resistance to my own inner noise and to the nearly...

Receive What Is Given

November 13, 2023

I'm sitting at my favorite study table at one of my library haunts. The table sits under a big picture window that overlooks a tree with thick bean-like...

Liquid Days are for Walking

October 18, 2023

These are liquid days. We're trying to figure out what comes next for our family, and in that season -- one we have lived through many times before -- it...

Happy to Report

September 14, 2023

A week ago today, I walked a path again in a new way. It took me an entire year of hard work to prepare to do it. I am happy to report about it to you here....

Seasonal Shifts

August 22, 2023

We're back to normal around here - school has started, the routines are back in place after a full, rich summer. We had good times together as a family, and...

The Fawn in the Ferns

June 9, 2023

The wildfires of Canada certainly weren't going to grab my attention until they affected the air I breathed, and this week, they did. The skies were darkened...

On "The Birds and the Beguines"

June 2, 2023

Welcome new subscribers, and a friendly "hello again" to longtime readers of my newsletter! I am a fan of newsletters, especially by writers, chiefly because...

So Much Depends Upon Such Small Things

May 15, 2023

I recently read a book by Stephen Marche called On Writing and Failure, a short essay seeking to puncture rather than entrench prevailing myths, about...

Ekphrastic Conversations

February 27, 2023

Visual artists nourish my imagination and my writing work. I see them as important companions to helping me understand myself as a writer and to be faithful...

Learning how to lap

January 20, 2023

When I was in high school, I decided to take a lifeguarding class. I was a decent enough swimmer, I figured. The challenge of learning how to be a lifeguard...

Resolutions: Reading and Remembering

January 2, 2023

Happy New Year! As we all do around this time of year, I have been thinking about changes I want to make for 2023: what to take up, and what to let go of....

Entering into Joy

December 1, 2022

This season is full of genuine goodness and real challenges. For many of us, it's replete with to-do lists, figuring out gifts, attending practices and...

Moving into Greater Light

November 7, 2022

just testing this out.

Bilbo and the Dragon

September 29, 2022

Today is Michaelmas, or the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, in the church calendar. I didn't grow up celebrating this feast day, but its significance...

Thanking is thinking.

August 29, 2022

This past summer has been very full and gratifying, and profoundly challenging and stretching - almost, but not quite, a breaking season. Whether it is...

Downshifts and Running Backwards

July 11, 2022

Not too long ago, we crossed the one-year mark of our family moving back to the United States from Belgium. That fact, along with a handful of other reasons,...

Excavate with gratitude.

May 17, 2022

I've been learning to see gratitude as a garden implement in the soil of my life, one that I can use to improve that soil's condition. The improvement...

Learning to Talk Back (Antirrhêtikos)

May 3, 2022

One of the true pleasures of studying is diving into deeper vocabularies than one's own to discover new words and their meanings. My studies have brought me...

The Gift of Good Questions

April 20, 2022

Spring is doing its magnificent thing in our part of the world. The daffodils long peeked their sunny, egg-yolk-like faces out, the cherry trees drew crowds...