• Eirenicole

Grief

Embracing Joy

Embracing Joy 1080 1080 Nicole

To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole. For Lent, we are using the…

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Grief and Sharing Loss

Grief and Sharing Loss 2550 1700 Nicole

“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…

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Time and Metaphor for Grief

Time and Metaphor for Grief 150 150 Nicole

Recently, I came across a book by Finnish author, Johanna Sinisalo, The Core of the Sun. The story is a present-day dystopian feminist-ish social critique, and it is not for the prim or easily embarrassed. But, she writes a beautiful, penetrating description of grief, at once metaphor and exact. And, while grief is not the…

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Joy and Affliction

Joy and Affliction 150 150 Nicole

In this third week of Advent we are reminded of the joy that comes with understanding the significance of Jesus’ birth. It is with a fair bit of disorientation, however, that I approach this meditation as the week has issued circumstances that are far from joyful: An Aunt who is close to death; a beautiful,…

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