For This Day, I Am Thankful

It is Mother's Day, in the spring of a year that feels like gauze unravelling, too quickly. There are wounds, scrapes and scars; we have been tended to by separation and isolation and the consolation of soon, of better days ahead, of eventually - but unpin the slight tension that keeps us safely wrapped, and …

Advent Journal: Breath

This chapter on breath resonates on multiple levels. In just a few weeks, one of my favorite people in our community will deliver a Sunday morning message on ruach -the breath of life, of God. I've read a preview copy and it's inspiring and encouraging. I'm learning to breath more intentionally; in this time of …

Advent Journal: Alpha

I had a long conversation over the weekend with someone who is unfamiliar with church life. A good, moral, decent family, they nonetheless rejected any organized religion. It was fascinating to see what sort of restrictions this put on my attempt to explain (in response to their direct questions) not only the specifics about Christian …

Advent Journal: Given

Truth is perhaps most simply defined as "the actual state of the matter; seeing things for the way they are," and it's fascinating to me that the definition of truth entails having a clear perspective when looking at everything...Truth is found when we can lay aside our own preference and vantages and see everything for …

Advent Journal: Vulnerability

In Honest Advent, Chapter 4, Scott Erickson writes of vulnerability. At the moment, I am feeling the vulnerability of my body. I'm tired; my head hurts. I have an ear infection. I went to the doctor for said ear infection yesterday, resulting in an ear irrigation because the infection had created some sort of buildup …

Advent Journal: Motherhood

Erickson writes of Motherhood in Honest Advent, exploring the impact of an image that was unfamiliar to me. Mary and Eve, by Sister Grace Remington, Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey, Dubuque, Iowa. Image found here. My first reaction to this drawing of Eve and Mary was resistance. Surprisingly powerful resistance. Hmmm. Feelings of resistance …

Advent Journal: Light

(Scott Erickson's Honest Advent is an excellent read and a good resource for this season - and it's not too late to order one for your own Advent journey.) COVID forced us to rethink home work spaces. I'd sacrificed my small study area to give my youngest son some studio space; he'd returned home from …

Advent Journal: Annunciation

I've been marking time. The season of Advent officially begins today, marked by waiting and anticipation - but these past four weeks have already been spent in a unique sort of lingering. All of my five kids were home in November. That's a rare thing, these days, with all the busy activities of their adult …

The Only Thing That Matters

So here we are, some four month into the greatest worldwide disruption I have experienced in my lifetime. It has not been easy, has it? One thing I am thinking about a lot recently is what really matters. When the normal routine of life is upended, when regular measurements of success and productivity are no …

Learning To Lament

"I miss your blog." The text came through at the right moment, affirming the twitch somewhere inside of me that meant words would be coming, soon. Often, I begin to write in my head - the thoughts and phrases that strain towards birth, the cathartic purging of questions and answers and what is, for me, …