Settings: the places that shape us

November 24, 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

All the seconds run together now, and clocks don’t seem to matter much. Maybe they never did in a place where time and work and rest were measured more by when the rooster crowed and the sun set . . . when the rain came or didn’t and the first frost threatened.

What happens to friendships when our memories are only ghosts?

June 18, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

By Carlton H. Colby & Amanda Cleary Eastep Memories by Carl I met J and his younger brother in a crab apple fight. I lost. Of course, it wasn’t fair, me against the two of them along with another brother who couldn’t throw far because he was still a little guy, but he tried anyway. J […]

Day 1: Finding Healthy Habits as We Wander

April 28, 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

That first walk in the woods with my grandmother ushered me into the “wild,” into an environment that was not my neatly mowed yard with the metal swing set and chain link fence.

A Communion of Chocolate and Generations

December 29, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I break the chocolate wafer into pieces while it’s still in its holiday foil wrapper. Caramel oozes from the cracks as I carefully unwrap it and offer it up to my great aunt. “It’s like communion,” I tell her. She chuckles and says it’s sticky. We are visiting her in the […]

When Your Kid Starts College: Saying goodbye with open hands

August 31, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Before my eight-year-old daughter would leave for her dad’s house every other weekend, I would kiss the palm of her small hand, curl her fingers into a fist, and tell her to put the kiss on her cheek when she missed me. What I didn’t realize was that she tried keeping […]

Mother’s Day with all the vowels

May 8, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Sometimes on a day you could and should sleep in, you wake up at 4 a.m. instead, because, well, that cup of peach tea at 8:30 p.m. …and that thing or 10 on your mind that you need to pray about. So you wake up God, too, who like a patient […]

Liked These Best in 2015 You Did

December 31, 2015.Reading time 3 minutes.

“Impossible to see the future is.” – Yoda By Amanda Cleary Eastep We don’t know what 2016 will bring, but my year-end blog analytics gave me a chance to see what resonated with you in 2015 here at Living Between the Lines. THANK YOU for reading, liking, sharing, and commenting! If any of the Top 5 […]

Being Bob Cratchit: What Should You Carry into the New Year?

December 29, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Bob Cratchit got fired from his low-paying job on Christmas Eve. Sure, it was a miserable job–the office was freezing in the winter, the hours were long, and he had only one day off each year. Christmas Day. And then there was his boss, Ebenezer Scrooge. As I watched A Christmas […]

“Do you know what I know?” The truth about the Three Wise Men

December 15, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep For me, it was more shocking than discovering Santa wasn’t real. Despite all the Christmas pageant memorization I endured growing up Lutheran, it wasn’t until high school when I realized that the Three Wise Men WERE NEVER AT THE MANGER. The whole nativity scenario my classmates and I had played out each Christmas Eve for proud […]

“Ordinary” Jesus Loves Turkey and Sinners

November 28, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep As I looked around our family table at Thanksgiving, I imagined Jesus sitting there. Probably at the head of the table. . .and after dessert, in Dad’s chair, because my father would so give up the microfiber recliner for his savior. We would have offered Jesus one of the drumsticks (before […]