Ready to Make Friends with Poetry? ⟶
More thoughts from my Deck Time, prompted by ‘God in the Yard’ (Spiritual Practice for the Rest of Us)**, an ongoing full stop in the middle of my days. There’s a scientific rule, I think, about forward motion–the more intensely and quickly an object is moving, the harder it is to slow down. Something like…
I wanted to write like Annie Dillard away alone aware– not here in the middle of this city/suburbs life. Leave the concrete and multiplying cars with their inhuman noises, seek a vista, a vale of color and light, to inspire and bring forth words like a flowing brook across quiet pebbles. But I’m here in…
My cough appears each hour with the annoying regularity of a political ad. Its persistence is wearing me down. The election is over, the advertisements are gone. No more enduring the monotony of a grating sound I do not want to hear. (did I tell you I have a cough?) I did my part–voted the…
The Seattle rain is doing its October thing–pouring, puddling, splattering–and the cold gray world matches my mood. A windstorm blew through last night and fractured one of the oldest trees in town….an apt picture of the chasm created again by the world gone crazy with pain. Three hours north of me last Friday, a high…
Barbara Crooker is a quiet soul and a richly talented woman. I first heard Barbara’s “voice” via a broadcast of ‘Prairie Home Companion’ when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems. I continued to discover her voice and work as it appeared in various publications, Rock and Sling, Christianity and Literature, The Christian Century, Spiritus, and…
This blog post is part of Michelle DeRusha’s #MyFaithHeroine contest, in connection with the release of the book 50 Women Every Christian Should Know. Find out how to participate here. ~~~~~~~~ I went into labor with my daughter Leah on a waterbed at my friend Biana’s (bee-onna) house 35 years ago. I was watching the ‘Sound of Music’ and wanted to…
I love studying God’s Word, but I need help. And encouragement. Beth Moore’s Bible Studies do that. Our women’s group is going through ‘Children of the Day’ (I and II Thessalonians) right now and the words and Spirit are fresher than they’ve ever been. This week Beth challenged us to write a letter to a friend,…
Many corners of the interwebs are echoing Jesus-followers to be more intentional about pauses in our busy days and find a Sabbath rest. In this season of my life it is more and more difficult to engage in such a practice. However, I woke up the other morning and heard, “find Me in the In-Between”,…
Our summer was VERY long here in the Pacific Northwest and it’s been harder to find the beauty of red that I’m used to this time of year…So I really did have to hunt. (You can see my first two ‘Hunting for Red’ posts here and here.) this plant is called a ‘burning bush’ plant…
Perhaps the greatest tool of the enemy of our souls is to keep our addictions and problems in the dark. Actually, it IS his greatest tool. In Christian circles we have deemed it acceptable to talk about overeating and gluttony–there is Weight Watchers or we can enroll in Jenny Craig. There are support groups for…