Author: Sarah B Anderson

The French philosopher, Simone Weil wrote about this idea of gravity and grace. I am not nearly smart enough to totally understand what she meant when she wrote about it, more than half a century ago, but I heard Pete Rollins describe it a little like this: We live in a world that operates by the laws of gravity. It’s the way things are, the natural and social rules of the culture we exist in. Gravity literally and metaphorically brings order and routine and structure to our world. But every now and again we catch these glimpse of grace....

I have spent the past several nights away from my phone. It wasn’t a decision I made myself. I think it went something like, me scrolling through my twitter feed, occasionally stopping, and speaking, with an elevated blood pressure dictating the words coming out of my mouth, fueled by anger, frustration, and all kind of swirling emotion, my husband listening calmly, and then reaching over and taking the phone from my hands. “What?” “You need to be done.” So I was, done, this scenario repeating itself several times over the course of a week. The problem Sunday night, when...

Before we left on our trip, we were told how charming the people of Ireland were. That we should hit the local pubs and, if we spent more than 30 minutes there, we would walk out with the names and numbers of our new best friends, and an invitation to come back and visit. From our first ride in the cab in Belfast, we knew everything we had heard was true. The people were charming. Their friendliness, irresistible. They were down to earth, eager to connect and so very thankful that we would visit their piece of the world,...