(post #7) I’ve just returned from a women’s retreat where I had the privilege of listening to my Mama speak. Two of my aunts, my sister and my sister-in-law also attended, so we all had our own mini-retreat within the retreat, if you know what I’m saying. Girl-talk around a fire, cheesecake at midnight, massages, chocolate, […]
Grace Applied (More Thoughts on Boundaries): Real Life is Now
(post #5) see list of all posts here I’m combing through my draft folder tonight, and am surprised to find this post from two years ago that is in keeping with the theme already swimming in my mind: boundaries, perimeters. Here you go: It is a rainy 2 o’clock appointment, when the counselor and I crash against the concept […]
Boundaries in Parenting: Sacred Smallness, Real Life Is Now.
(post #3) see list of all posts here When our first son was about 18 months old, freshly weaned and newly a big brother, he started testing his autonomy. As a highly verbal child, he’d been counting to 10 and saying ABCs since his first birthday, adding simple sums such as “ one bus and […]
Boundaries in Marriage: Sacred Smallness, Real Life Is Now
(post #2) see list of all posts here Perameters. Thinking of perameters around writing causes me to think of boundaries. And the very word boundaries always makes me think of marriage. I came into marriage with a poor sense of boundaries. I wasn’t quite sure where I ended and where another person began, and as […]
Wild and Free
I lived in Oklahoma for 5 years, and failed at every flower I planted. Our porch planters would burn, our gardens would flood, our sunflowers would be eaten by locust. It wasn’t that it was impossible to keep living things alive, just that one actually had to tend them, and I couldn’t. I was too busy keeping […]
Being Present and Embracing Life For What It Is
Riverbanks The Willamette (will-AM-et) River winds behind the backdrop of my childhood memories, and now it is winding into the memories of my children. It feels surreal on some level, to be back here with my children and living within a half mile of her banks. The scents are heady: water, douglas firs, blackberries; the baking rocks beneath […]
Ashes, Ashes, Body and Blood
The ashes in my mouth taste like talc and powder. I swallow, move the tongue, wipe between teeth. It’s always like this, always a material experience that solidifies the visceral into something I understand. It’s candles to facilitate prayer, it’s arms raised to worship, it’s dancing on a cliff’s ledge to break before the Spirit. It’s […]
Leukemia: In His Hands (part 1)
On January 12 my Mama was diagnosed with an advanced form of leukemia. The prognosis was blunt and harsh; the doctor laid it out and left the room. Entering a state of shock, my mom turned to my dad and to her sister and said, “I feel like this is a dream.” We sat by our phones […]
The Day I Wake
He wraps himself in light as with a garment…He walks upon the wings of the wind. (Psalm 104) The day I wake I find you spoken in a thousand gleams of light all the material, all the weight you roll yourself and hide yourself and reveal yourself and the day I wake I pour myself […]
You Are Not Alone (survivor songs #34 – final post!)
And we’re done. The inadequacy I felt as I faced the task of writing this series has been – well, not replaced exactly, but joined by a sense of tear-springing surprise. “Who am I?” was the question hanging over my heart as I first put my fingers to the keys. What grief have I known that could qualify me […]
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