Degrees in Idealism

exploring how we would live if we truly believed life was meaningful

Why Growing Up Makes Us Sad

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Cherish these precious moments. They grow up so fast. Every parent has heard this advice. Older parents have probably given it. I am only now beginning to understand it. In fact, I used to really dislike this advice— and not just when I became a mother. I disliked it a long time ago when I heard people […]

Being There

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Being present. It’s something most all of us struggle with in this digital, fast-paced world where screens lure us in and distract us from the depth and beauty in our lives— where there’s always new entertainment to shield us from contemplation, imagination, and the age-old “problem” of boredom. But as much as we struggle with […]

What Does It Profit to Gain All The Likes?

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The other day I found myself captivated by a slew of “America’s Got Talent” child singers’ first performances. The videos have millions of views; the reactions of the crowd, the other judges, the children, the families of the children, and the rest of the world are largely the same: this is a good thing. This […]

How to be an ENFP but also get things done

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I’m a Myers-Briggs type ENFP. As with any personality type, there are positive and negatives to this: on the one hand, I can be passionate, relationship-oriented, good at improvising, and creative; on the other hand I can be disorganized, procrastinating, impractical, and bad at planning ahead (Anyone else with a “P” in their type, and […]

My new book is out!

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My oldest son knows a lot about Jesus. He knows a lot about the Church and the sacraments and about grace and about God’s love. He doesn’t know very much about sin. For mostly good reasons, I believe, I’ve been putting off that topic for quite awhile. But I’ve been getting more and more questions […]

First Trimester Salad

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I’m just trying to survive. That’s always been my mantra during the first trimester of pregnancy which has always been fairly rough for me. This one has been particularly rough as I try to adequately feed, nurture, referee, and entertain two rambunctious toddler boys. I pretty much always feel like curling up in bed and sleeping […]

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About The Name

“There are degrees in idealism. We learn first to play with it academically, as the magnet was once a toy. Then we see in the heyday of youth and poetry that it may be true, that it is true in gleams and fragments. Then, its countenance waxes stern and grand, and we see that it must be true.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I found this quote well described my own experience– consistently reworking my idealism, being surprised by it, sometimes even losing it only to discover it all the more fully. I know we will never find all the answers, but how thrilling it is to find ourselves getting a little closer to the source and summit of things, a little closer, as we work our way through the “degrees.”

sons of God