Elise Seyfried
Elise Seyfried is a writer, spiritual formation director at a Philadelphia-area Lutheran church, actress, and mom of five children. Elise is the author of three books of humorous spiritual essays: Unhaling: On God, Grace and a Perfectly Imperfect Life, Underway: Reflections on Everyday Grace, and Everyday Matters. The books focus on her funny, messy, noisy life--and the wonder of God's grace through it all. She writes a regular column for The Chestnut Hill (PA) Local. Her work has also appeared in such diverse places as The Philadelphia Inquirer; Metropolis; The Lutheran Digest; Guideposts Magazine; Simul: Lutheran Voices in Poetry; The Word in Season and the Wittenburg Door. Elise was lyricist for the Stanley Drama award-winning musical Flight and has co-written (with her husband Steve) 15 plays for children.
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Unhaling: On God, Grace and a Perfectly Imperfect Life
humor and spirituality
Unhaling: On God, Grace and a Perfectly Imperfect Life is a collection of humorous essays that celebrate the spiritual in the most unlikely everyday moments. These are snapshots of Elise's cluttered, wildly disorganized, very full life as church worker, actress, writer and mom of five. God's grace can be found everywhere: in burned dinners, bungled piano lessons, forgotten appointments, and overgrown yards. God is right there when the kids break out in chicken pox (all at once), when they skydive, study in Thailand, enter the Naval Academy, perform their music in concert, take a first solo bus trip to Boston. And God lovingly encourages a certain perpetually nervous fifty-something to unclench, relax and "unhale". Unhaling challenges us all to look at our own experiences with new eyes, and recognize the faithful One who stands with us, with all our flaws and our failures throughout our perfectly imperfect lives. |
Underway: Reflections on Everyday Grace
humor and spirituality
Underway: Reflections on Everyday Grace is a book of humorous essays that focuses on the (very) hectic and (mostly) happy life journey of one spiritual traveler and her family--and the everyday traces of God's grace that keep her going. From counting her Facebook "friends" and revealing her bucket list, to sharing her children's adventures--on a submarine out of Hawaii, a week spent in the Guatemala mountains, taking the SATs--Elise Seyfried finds that God's loving presence can be found everywhere, just as long as we look for it. |
Everyday Matters
humor and spirituality
A humorous look at the perfectly imperfect life of a mom of five who is also spiritual formation director at a Lutheran church. From trying to keep up an old house (and an aging body), to suffering through little league nights,family card games and waiting at the deli counter, from remembering our cute babies to holding our cute grandbabies, the stories in Everyday Matters remind us that every day is sacred, however improbable that may seem. Washing dishes, driving the car, vacuuming the rug: God is in the minute details of our lives, and is there to direct us even when we seem to have no sense of direction ourselves. In these essays, God gently laughs with us, never at us, as we try to navigate this crazy mixed up world. Every day really does matter, if we stop and think about it. And so do we. |