Just a few weeks ago, my husband Will and I moved to New York City. Though we live relatively simply and our twin house in Philadelphia was not huge (about 1700 square feet), we had to downsize even more in order to move into our two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. There’s
Note: This is a guest post written by The Rev. Samantha Drennan, a part-time associate to the Bishop in Northeastern PA Synod (ELCA), full-time parish pastor, and cat mom. Becca (The Christian Minimalist) asked me to write this guest post after I sent her the above picture of guest towels.
Ignatius of Loyola (eventual founder of the Jesuits), while serving in the military, was hit by a cannonball and severely injured. During his time recovering (and enduring multiple, very dangerous surgeries), he had a spiritual awakening and turned toward God. This event and long recovery was a turning point for
In the United States, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit our shores, the future looks bright. Events are being scheduled, businesses are opening back up, more and more people are getting vaccinated, and transmission of the disease
As a pastor, I’ve eaten at my share of church potlucks. Potlucks are community meals in which everyone brings something to share. Some potlucks have more than enough food to go around, while others have a limited amount of food. I’ve noticed that people tend to fall into two categories
It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials. Bruce Lee In math class, I always appreciated addition more than subtraction. It seemed easier to wrap my mind around adding more rather than taking away, especially when taking away brought the total into negative
A few years ago, when we started our Christian minimalism journey, my husband Will and I minimized 60% of our stuff. It felt good to simplify our material possessions. But letting go of things was much harder than we anticipated. We were prepared to have a hard time paring down
Well, I did it! Tomorrow will be Day 100 of my 100 Day Dress Challenge— I actually wore one single dress for 100 consecutive days, for at least eight hours a day. Though this minimalism experiment sounds extreme, I found it to be life-changing. I started to see some benefits
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” I recently rediscovered Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken.” The person in the poem stands at a crossroads– does he take the
Note: This is a guest post written by Natalee Hill, Associate for Communications and Administration at the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Philadelphia, and Coordinator of Children’s Ministries at Trinity Church in Swarthmore, PA. The Modified Experiment: 3 Dresses, 100 Days Early in January, I checked my Facebook feed