Degrees in Idealism

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

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Why Growing Up Makes Us Sad

11.18.2017 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

Why Growing Up Makes Us Sad

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 […]

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Categories // Family, Soul Tags // #, #findingmeaning, #livinginthepresent, #love, #motherhood, #parenthood, #relationships

Watch the New Beauty and the Beast– If Only For the Ending

04.24.2017 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

Watch the New Beauty and the Beast– If Only For the Ending

I went into Beauty and the Beast with somewhat low expectations. The cartoon version was always one of my favorite movies, and I hadn’t heard the best reviews of the remake. One of the reviews I found most striking argued that there was something forced, strange, and off-putting about the story being live-action in the first […]

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Categories // Beauty, Culture Tags // #art, #beautyandthebeast, #fairytales, #love, #moviereview, #movies

How to participate in gift-giving without participating in materialism

12.06.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // 1 Comment

How to participate in gift-giving without participating in materialism

Materialism is an obvious problem in America and it is made more obvious during the holiday season. Many people blame Christmas, or at least Christmas gift-giving, for this materialism. But materialism can happen with or without gifts. Whether it be iPads or beach trips or going out to bars, we become materialistic when we are […]

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Categories // Beauty, Culture, Family Tags // #children, #christmas, #gifts, #love, #materialism

The Very Thought of You

11.12.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

The Very Thought of You

It seems to be a generally accepted fate that people who fell in love will fall out of it and that romance within long-term relationships or marriage is bound to die. The usual advice to try to prevent this goes something like: try to make time for each other. Set monthly/weekly date nights. And certainly, […]

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Categories // Marriage Tags // #love, #marriage, #romance

Embracing Difficult People

10.08.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

Embracing Difficult People

With our first baby, I remember thinking, I can’t wait until we get out of the newborn stage and this all gets easier. But then my newborn became a toddler and I saw how toddlers can be pretty difficult too, in their own ways. It was only becoming easier because I was becoming more used […]

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Categories // Family, Soul Tags // #love, #parenthood

It’s My Body, But That’s Not the Point

11.09.2015 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

It’s My Body, But That’s Not the Point

Unlike my husband and toddler, my love language is not primarily physical affection. I need to be near those I love, but I don’t necessarily need a whole lot of touch. Many nights in bed I naturally graviate to my own cool space once it’s time to sleep, but no matter what, both my husband […]

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Categories // Culture, Family, Marriage Tags // #bodies, #feminism, #love, #lovelanguages, #women

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About Me

I'm Elizabeth. I'm a wife, a mother to three little boys, a writer, and a lover and seeker of the beautiful, the true, and the good. I am a believer in idealism-- that even amidst the chaos and the confusion, the exhaustion and the sadness of life there is always joy to be found, hope to be clung to, and a better path to be taken. I write my thoughts on this blog. A link to my fiction book is at the bottom of the page.

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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.”

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sons of God

SONY DSC

sons of God

A short novella in which Lucifer talks about his dad.

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