Becky’s Blog
Two Times I Flubbed Up Royally- and the French Flubber I Want to Be
Todd and I had noticed it on our evening walk, a perfect blue egg on the side walk. It must have fallen out of a nest in our neighbor's crepe myrtle, dropped onto the soft ground and then rolled down the hill strewn with pine straw onto the sidewalk. "Maybe I should...
10 Things My Unkempt Yard Is Trying to Tell Me
Todd and I aren't really yard people. If you live on my street, this will not shock you. But we do like for our yard to be decently straight, not hazardous to children, and kind of pretty from a distance. So during the last month or so, I've been devoting at least one...
“Why Would a Girl Dog Do That to a Pillow?”- and Other Thoughts During My Meditation Fail
I gushed to someone the other day how I was trying to meditate each evening and how great it was going and that she should try it because it's awesome how it trains your mind to be quiet- and how deeply relaxed you feel at the end, as if you're a rock in God's pocket....
Tribute Night at the Children’s Hospital
I thought I knew what I was signing up for. I knew it would be sad. How could it be anything else, this annual tribute service at our local children’s hospital? Mamas and daddies and siblings and nurses and doctors would gather together in one room, and we’d call out...
My Magical, Mystical Moment at Target
Becky encounters a child making friends with a mannequin at Target and asks herself why the moment felt holy.
Can a Band-Aid Be Holy?
When I took Josiah for a stroll around Asheville's nature center a week ago, I had no idea so much would happen to me. Who knew I'd commiserate with Sassy, a raccoon with a hair loss problem? And there was more. I didn't even tell you about my brush with the Holy,...
In Solidarity with Sassy: Revealing Our Truth
I'm sorry, Sassy the Raccoon, for bursting out in laughter at your unfortunate predicament. I looked all over your enclosure for you, not to ogle, I promise, but to cheer you on and raise a paw of support! As a woman in my early fifties, I feel your pain. I guess the...
Who Gets to Play?
“It was an AR 15,” Ben said as I lifted my suitcase onto my bed and started unpacking. Todd and I had just returned from a four day drive through Florida, passing ten miles from Parkland the day before the shooting. Ben had been watching the house, and the news,...
What To Do About All This Pain?
I love this photo. I took it outside a church in Bethlehem in Palestine last April, and it reminds me that God is God of all people, not just ones that write like we do and talk like we do and live like we do. It also reminds me that there are hurting people...
Why I Wear the Key
Sweet Grand Boy isn’t the only person curious about the key I sometimes wear around my neck. “What does it mean?” asked the tiny old lady in bright red lipstick as we both reached for the avocados in the produce aisle. “What does it mean?” “Your key,” she said,...
When Zip Gets Zapped
During the last week or so it seems all my zip got zapped. You too? I'd find myself at the end of the day staring at my phone, scrolling through Facebook and then Instagram and then my email, then Sudoku and then my crossword app, trying to feel fed, settled,...
Three Things You Can Do to Experience God More in 2018
Is one of your goals for 2018 to experience God more often and more deeply this year? Thanks to some wise friends of mine, I have a list of three things you can do that I’m certain will help you achieve that goal, if you’re willing to take them seriously. Don’t make...
Christmas from the Gospel According to Mrs. Fayssoux’s Class of Fives
You probably know all about the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Christmas story they tell. Allow me to introduce you to a brand new gospel, and it really is good news for us all! It's the Gospel According to Mrs. Fayssoux's Class of Five Year Olds,...
Writing Memoir- Thoughts About Getting It on the Page
See the pile of notebooks amongst some of my French stuff I used to keep focus while I was writing The Holy Éclair? Those are the 5 different versions that the book took over the last ten years, as I worked and reworked it from time to time--not five different edits,...
Hungry for Something Good? Join The Holy Éclair Launch Team!
It sounds crazy, I know. Even as I wiped the chocolate from my lips and savored the heavenly goodness, I wondered if it was real. Had God really spoken to me through French pastry? Challenged my settled, church lady thoughts with a simple chocolate éclair? Or what...
A Village for Josiah…and the Rest of Us
When Sarah asked me last week if I'd come up to Asheville on Friday for a practice run, I said that of course I would, and I was happy to do it. She starts back to work on Friday the 13th, (what timing) and since I'll be the designated babysitter for Fridays and...
Sunday Dinner…with a Heaping Side of Judgement
By the look of the crowd lined up on the porch, Sunday dinner in the mountains after church would be worth the wait. Todd and I made our way through the folks soaking up the sunshine in the parking lot and on the steps, men in Harley shirts looking over each other's...
Marriage Versus the Power of Cheese
It was my birthday. That's why I was more than slightly perturbed. Well, technically it wasn't really my birthday, but it was the day Todd and I had decided to celebrate my birthday, the day Todd had christened "Becky Ramsey's Big Day So Becky Gets to Pick Everything...
Taking Baby to College … and the Dark Secret of Parenting
This is the little boy we took to college two weeks ago. See, he's all packed up. Our baby. In the big city of Chicago. Fourteen hours away by car. Where he knew no one. During our road trip up there, I rediscovered that people handle stressful situations very...
Pilgrim Steps: Need a Retreat? The Crazy Place Jesus Picked
What comes to mind when you think of retreat? On our second touring day in Israel, we went to the place Jesus chose for retreat. Caesarea Philippi was the chief city twenty five miles or so north of the Sea of Galilee, into the Golan Heights, near the source of the...
Pilgrim Steps: Hungry? How’s About a Snack?
I was planning to blog tonight about a heavier subject- about the fascinating/weird place Jesus took the disciples on retreat and what it had to do with the famous question he asked Peter. So why is my featured photo one of a street bread cart in Jerusalem? You can...
Pilgrim Steps: Hanging Out in Nazareth and Sepphoris
Look! Traveling Baby Jesus found his mama! Boy, did he ever. During our first day of our pilgrimage in Israel, we hung out with a whole legion of Marys in his hometown, Nazareth. (Hang with me and you'll see what I mean.) But first we did a tour of the town where he...
What Does a Pilgrimage Look Like?
I had no idea what a pilgrimage looked like. I'd never been on one before, unless you count my pilgrimage a couple years ago to Mood - the mother of all hip fabric stores- the one made famous by the television show, Project Runway, in New York City. But a...
What’s So Great About Meals on Wheels? Jerry!
This week I'm sharing posts I wrote years ago about the people I got to know and love through Meals on Wheels. Today, meet my friend Jerry. Jerry’s waited for me on his back porch every other Wednesday for nearly five years now, so I know exactly what to expect from...
What’s So Great About Meals on Wheels? I Got to Know Mr. Williams
When I heard last week that the Trump administration had released a budget plan that would eliminate funding for the Community Development Block Grant program, which provides partial funding for local Meals on Wheels groups, I wanted to shake someone. For over 12...
Tigist, My Third Grade Philosopher Friend. And Other Blessings.
My friend Tigist is a smart young lady- and a natural philosopher. She may be a third grader, but when I read the words in the artwork she gave me, she speaks with the voice of someone who's been around the block a few times. A grandma, maybe, who understands life....
Mansplaining and Wondering
Last week I hung up a new watercolor print in my house (by Israeli artist Lesia Binkin -check out her work over at Etsy, here) and every time I walk by it, I just can't help but stop for a moment to stare at it. I guess I just love the colors and the feeling and the...
A List to Follow No Matter Who Is in Charge
Maybe you know how this goes. You have the kind of week when the clouds roll in. Someone gets the flu, there are executive orders that wound your heart because they will hurt people you love and people you don't know, and the dermatologist finds more to cut off of...
What’s a Nice Baptist Girl Like You Doing in a Mosque Like This?
Last night I went to a mosque. It was a first for me, though I've known Muslim people since I was little. Our dinner table was often crowded with my daddy's PhD students and their young families, and many of them were Muslim. "Again?" I'd groan to Mom, wondering why I...
Need Hope? Jump Into the Flow
"You nervous?" Todd asked me, handing me my wetsuit. "Nervous? Why should I be nervous?" I asked. I'd gone whitewater rafting several times before and it was no big deal. Besides, I'd grown up around water- if spending lazy summers poolside at the NCSU Faculty Club...