Is empathy a blessing or a burden?Maybe both. I have always believed that empathy is one of the quietest gifts a person can carry. Not loud. Not attention-seeking. Just quietly present in the way someone notices small changes in your voice, the heaviness behind your smile, or the silence you are trying so hard to…
Category: family
My Father’s Kind of Love
There are memories that don’t fade with time… they soften, they settle, they become part of how you see the world. Monday will mark five years since my father passed. Five years… and yet, there are days he still feels close enough to reach. Not in grand moments, but in the quiet ones—how I notice…
Misplaced?
There are moments when something simple lands with unexpected weight. You are not bothering the right people. It sounds almost too easy—like something that could be brushed aside. But when it settles, it reveals something many of us quietly carry: the fear of being “too much,” too needy, too present, too honest. So we shrink….
A Love That Remains
There are some kinds of love that don’t ask to be explained. They just… remain. My father passed away in 2021. And not long after that, my mother was officially diagnosed with dementia—though if we’re being honest, the signs were already there even before we lost him. Time has moved forward since then.In all the…
Seasons of the Heart
There are mornings that arrive quietly. No urgency. No noise.Just a kind of stillness that lingers a little longer than usual. And in that stillness, certain thoughts feel clearer—not louder, just… easier to hear. This morning felt like that. And somewhere between being half-awake and not fully wanting to rise yet,a thought settled in gently:…
Willow Sands
For a long time, much of my writing has lived in the quiet spaces of reflection and prayer. Books like The Quiet Life, Resting on the Wings of God, and Borrowed Prayers were written from those quiet places — the moments when we pause, listen, and notice the small things that shape our lives. But…
365 Days
There’s something about that number that feels both ordinary and overwhelming. A year. A calendar. A full circle around the sun. And yet… when you really sit with it, it becomes something else entirely. 365 chances. 365 mornings to wake up and try again. 365 days to love someone well. To speak gently. To show…
One Less Day
We often comfort ourselves with the phrase one more day. One more day to fix things. One more day to say what we meant. One more day to try again. But lately, I’ve been sitting with a quieter thought. Because every morning we wake up, it isn’t really one more day. It’s one less day….
Divine Preparation
Have you ever looked back and realized that God was taking care of you long before you understood why? For a long time, I thought my job was just something I needed to survive. A way to pay the bills. A season I had to endure. But lately, I’ve been seeing it differently. I’m realizing…
Holiness, From Where We Stand
We hear the word holiness and something in us stiffens. It sounds lofty. Untouchable. Like something meant for saints in stained glass, not people with tired hearts and complicated lives. Our church is beginning a series on holiness, and I found myself quietly asking—not out loud, but deep inside— What does holiness actually look like…
Charina.Writes 