Blog Archives | Eirenicole

Nicole
August 4, 2019
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Living the Prophetic

Living the Prophetic https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/LtP6.jpg 2560 1920 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg August 4, 2019 August 4, 2019

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a modern-day prophet. He knows this country’s history and the constitution that supports it, and recognizes the beauty and potential the documents hold – and the abuses carried out in service to it. He tells it with culture-centric music styles, casting of diverse leading roles, humor and heartbreaking narrative. The prophet Hosea knows God and Israel’s history, and sees the abuses carried out in the name of religion, and tells the story through his own marriage – not much humor, probably no music, but definitely a lot of heartbreak.

Nicole
February 26, 2019
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by our love, one church

by our love, one church https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/the-present-is-not-a-potential-past.jpg 1306 1632 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg February 26, 2019 February 26, 2019

Christ came so that all would be made right: between me and God, between me and you, and between us and all creation. That we would live in unified communion – as the first people lived before their eyes were opened to surface truths, blinded to the inner realities of image-bearers and their God. That we would covenant with one another – choose each other, and choose each other again, and again, and again . . . .

Nicole
January 17, 2019
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To Know is to Jeong

To Know is to Jeong https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/clark-jeesung.jpg 1080 1350 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg January 17, 2019 February 1, 2019

Today is Clark’s Homecoming Day. On January 17, 2006, we brought 6-month-old baby Clarkah from the other side of the world to inhabit our lives and change us forever. We are his and he is ours – with every ounce of our being. Today, I learned about the Korean concept of Jeong. In the words…

Nicole
October 15, 2018
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Grief and Sharing Loss

Grief and Sharing Loss https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/sadness-and-mental-health.jpg 2550 1700 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg October 15, 2018 February 1, 2019

“Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be,” Joan Didion reflects in startling honesty. In Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, the author processes the grief of losing his 18-year-old son in gradients of deep veracity. He reflects that sometimes sadness is “a cloud that comes along and covers me up.” It is…

Nicole
July 27, 2018
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Lysander, 18.

Lysander, 18. https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/Lysander-be-yourself-in-tree.jpg 1080 1080 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg July 27, 2018 February 1, 2019

Lysander turns 18 today. He is a unique individual. Sure, we all consider each of our children remarkable – it is the privilege of parenthood. Still, from the earliest years, we’ve observed this person grow and develop an exceptional character, unconcerned about how others perceive him. Indeed, when anyone assigns “weird” to anyone or anything,…

Nicole
July 13, 2018
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Clark, 13

Clark, 13 https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/Clark-at-1.jpg 2473 3200 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg July 13, 2018 February 1, 2019

Clark Howard JeeSung Snyder turns 13 today. My baby, the youngest of four, is now “officially” a teenager. Just in the past couple of months his gaze all too quickly approaching the level of mine slipped right by and can now, ever so slightly, cast down on me. I stand tall in this newly appointed…

Nicole
June 12, 2018
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Genius Sight

Genius Sight https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/Genius-sight.jpg 1760 2720 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg June 12, 2018 February 1, 2019

It is easy to showcase an idea or product for which you have a talent. Not so easy is the vulnerable act of exhibiting work that others may not yet understand. It is scary. It is often lonely. Still, each images God uniquely. And, the world doesn’t need another performer. The community doesn’t need one…

Nicole
June 2, 2018
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Creativity Transcends Gender – It Is Divine

Creativity Transcends Gender – It Is Divine https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/beyond-gender-julian.jpg 1080 1350 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg June 2, 2018 February 1, 2019

The only quality that can be ascribed to creativity is that it is inspired. Creativity transcends gender. Inspire – divine insight; to breathe life into the creative activity that is ignited within. Our creations orchestrate an exhibition of God’s being. Jesus, through whom all things were made (Jn1:3) is our true Mother, as Julian of…

Nicole
March 21, 2018
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Inner Tranquility

Inner Tranquility https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/inner-tranquility.jpg 1487 1606 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg March 21, 2018 February 1, 2019

“Peace that demands unreal conditions is a deception. There is no life without work, anxieties, or tensions. Peace is not found in avoiding these but in understanding them and confidently controlling their force.” [Sister Wendy Beckett] From this inner tranquility peace enters relationship through practical involvement in the distress of another. It understands – knows…

Nicole
March 17, 2018
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Be Present to Joy

Be Present to Joy https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/cabaret-date.jpg 3024 3780 Nicole Nicole https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59c708336b44c55aa93e8059ae098e96?s=96&d=monsterid&r=pg March 17, 2018 February 1, 2019

Date night with my partner-in-life to see Cabaret at the Paramount Theater, Aurora, IL. On being present to Joy, Sister Wendy Beckett says: “It is inadequate, even misleading, to speak of ‘experiencing joy’, though it is impossible to find another phrase that can suggest what is meant. Joy is too great to be experienced. It is…