Merianna Harrelson

I am the Pastor of Garden of Grace United Church of Christ in Columbia, SC and the Director of Consulting at Harrelson.Co. I am always looking for a good cup of coffee and a great book.

Morning Meditation

The morning light streams through the window. The coffee is hot. The house is quiet. Another day has begun. The mornings used to be predictable. Packing lunches. Finding shoes. Loading into the car, to go go go hustle from here to there. Now, the mornings are slower. There’s no rush. There’s no hustle. The new …

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Giving Up the Hustle of Protecting the Institution

I’ve been a part of a lot of systems: being a student for thirteen years, studying at university, and teaching in the public school system. Systems and institutions develop characteristics of their own over time. It’s why so many entrepreneurs study and analyze culture and how it develops. They want to develop a different kind …

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Preparing for Winter

In Katherine May’s beautiful book Wintering, she describes the process of preparing for a physical winter saying: I have spent most of my life trying to push winter away, having rarely had to truly feel its bite. She is speaking of the physical season but continues to elaborate that most of us do not like …

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“Din, Din, Wook at Me!”

As the Spring sun lingers, so do our afternoons outside. Our five-year-old has taken up tree climbing and seeing how high he can go and whether today it will be just one more branch. Our two-year-old has taken up trying to climb the porch, the fence, the playground in attempt to keep up. I’ve learned …

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Planting Healing

A year ago, we passed our neighbors who are gardening goddesses. Their yard always looks and smells amazing and is filled with birds and rabbits who come to find sanctuary. I said in passing how much I loved their aloe plants that had grown so large they had taken up a whole corner of their …

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