Tag: Emptiness

My Sense of Time Passing (Guest Post)

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
This morning, I am welcoming Melinda Johnson, friend and fellow author back to Time Eternal. She’s sharing with us a reflection she wrote some years ago that to me hits on an important and sometimes painful question: how do we find purpose in our lives? Many of us try to enact meaning in our lives by seeking after…

When Your Lent Was Not Instagram-Worthy

· Nicole M. Roccas 12 Leave a Comment on %s
12:30PM on Lazarus Saturday. I’m still in bed, my limbs weighed down by the ache of sleeping in too late. Barely awake, I pull off my eye mask and instinctively reach for my phone to see if I’ve missed any important messages. Just one text from my husband, 57 minutes ago: “Things I never thought I’d say to…

Can Children Struggle with Despondency?

· Nicole M. Roccas
Something unexpected happened when I published Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life; the people with the most questions have been parents concerned for their children. I didn’t foresee this because I assumed the people who would be most interested in my book would be people like me: thirty-somethings who can’t seem to shake the…

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: What Time Is It?

· Nicole M. Roccas 2 Leave a Comment on %s
  Recently, I was making a mad dash through the campus library, trying to scrounge up enough interesting books before they closed for the evening. My eye caught this title by David S. Cunningham: Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Literary Meditations on Suffering, Death, and New Life. I was drawn to the title because, like Cunningham, I have come to…

Tracking Time, Day 1: Lessons in Life, Mortality, Stress, and Faith

· Nicole M. Roccas 6 Leave a Comment on %s
Yesterday, I started doing something I’ve been putting off for a while: I started tracking my time. As in, recording how I spend my time for virtually every waking minute. (Scroll to the end of this post for a more practical explanation of how I did this.) You’re probably wondering why I would voluntarily torture myself like this.…

What Writing and Working are Teaching Me This Lent

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and…

Announcing my book: Time and Despondency!

· Nicole M. Roccas 6 Leave a Comment on %s
So, this came in the mail last week. I guess that means it’s official… I’m writing a book! Actually, to be more specific, I’ve been writing a book–my deadline is now only a month and a half away. (Because all good things take TIME–including the logistics of hammering out book contracts–I haven’t been able to let the cat out…

The Holy Friday of Christmas? What we remember when Christmas falls on a Sunday

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
Christmas being on a Sunday this year is kind of messing with my sense of time–I keep thinking it’s holy week. On this last day of the work week (perhaps last working day of 2016), time feels quiet, still and contemplative, like things are winding down. Like we are in the sad but peaceful eye of a storm…

A blessed Advent! From my perfectionism to yours…

· Nicole M. Roccas
The Advent and Christmas seasons are a perfectionist’s nightmare. At no time of year do the “shoulds,” “oughts,” and “pinterests” blare more loudly in our minds than December.  As soon as you get the old holiday ornaments out of storage, the shiny new ones gleam and scream from the store shelves: Buy me! You need me to have…