Michelle Van Loon

Author: Michelle Van Loon

  • October 7, 1979

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    Michelle Van Loon
    in

    Weeks before our October 7, 1979 wedding, Bill and I headed with our wedding photographer to the site of our first official date about a year or so earlier. Most photographers weren’t doing engagement pictures beyond a simple portrait of the couple, but the friend who shot our wedding suggested we do a few casual…

  • Falling Upward: Chapter 13 / Conclusion

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    Michelle Van Loon
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    I’ve been blogging through Father Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward: A Spirituality Through The Two Halves Of Life. Even if you haven’t read the book, please stick around and join the conversation here if you’re facing a mid-life transition. Father Rohr offers us all some meaty food for thought. Here are links to my previous posts…

  • You mean I have to THINK about how I’ll spend my vote?

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    Michelle Van Loon
    in

    Oh, for the good old days of being a “Values Voter”. It was so easy to grab one of the guides published by conservative lobbying organizations, skim the columns comparing the candidates, and vote Republican. I didn’t vote for candidates. I voted to end abortion. I’d used the logic that to vote pro-life was the…

  • Exit stage left

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    Michelle Van Loon
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    I spent an extended time this morning studying  James 1, the result of signing up for my first-ever Beth Moore Bible study. Her biggish hair and cheerleader intensity had always freaked me out a little bit -by “a little bit”, I mean “a lot” – but since I’m a new girl in a new town,…

  • Book review: Veneer

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    Michelle Van Loon
    in

    Only the shallow know themselves. – Oscar Wilde Wilde spoke these words more than 100 years ago. If they’re true, then we should have a culture full of self-actualized people who’ve ascended to the tip-top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Popular culture that celebrates surface appearances with relentless devotion. Any Warhol captured this devotion perfectly:…

  • After The Infant Dedication/Baptism/Naming Ceremony…

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    Michelle Van Loon
    in

    It might be a child dedication, a naming ceremony, or an infant baptism. New parents, perhaps adorned with a burp rag, parade to the front of the congregation with their precious babe-in-arms. Some combo of sibs, godparents, grandparents and family friends may join the parade. The proud family stands before God and the congregation, formally…