When I unwrap the holiday ornaments the stiff snowflakes pause a moment in my hand, fashioned, starched in precise geometry by my mother, who stitched frugal threads into transcendence. Once I presented her with a bedspread from my husband’s family not quite finished, a long-forgotten interruption. She studied the pattern, dyed the thread to match someone else’s story, not unlike her dutiful life as pastor’s … Continue reading Lace
The word “Sabbath” calls up lots of ideas and feelings for different people. As I grew up, we were expected to observe it strictly, with no unnecessary work and no homework done on Sundays. We could not patronize a swimming pool or a restaurant, because that would require other people to violate the Sabbath as they served us. This was not altogether a negative thing. … Continue reading Life-Giving Sabbath
Splash, rumble, plink, whoosh, Plop, mumble, bang, sploosh. Clang, jiggle, roar, ding, Thrust, giggle, vroom, fling. The onomata runs around attempting to be freer, but he cannot escape the sound of his pursuing poeia. Continue reading No Escape
Wendell Berry, dubbed the “Poet Farmer,” has spent countless hours walking through the fields and woods of his property, writing about the wonder of nature and the stories that the land would recount if it could use our language. Any farmer or gardener can identify with his delight in the process of “dead” seeds springing to life and morphing into crops, flowers and trees. It … Continue reading Practice Resurrection
I welcome Char Gustafson as a guest writer today. This was written in March, 2021. Now…” , the big man bus driver looked at me, a scared little 8 year old and said, “Where do you belong?” Where indeed. It was March…that time of the year in Iowa where those who rented farms moved. Leases were up. Farms were sold. Families, uprooted. In 1961, I … Continue reading Searching for Home, from Home
I cannot put the glory into a poem. The Kyiv Chamber Choir sings “In Thy Kingdom”, their voices resonating, swelling in what I picture as a beautiful cathedral. How they cannot make this beauty now. How they are scattered and the church is a shell where the music cannot carom off its walls but its memory flies into the atmosphere as a prayer. Dissipates. How … Continue reading The Music Over There
Winter Day in Nebraska I glance out, see the geese stitch the sky over Interstate 80 their ragged, urgent arrows aiming somewhere east southeast no big deal but they keep coming prophecies sliding like hieroglyphs against a cave wall of grey clouds as “I Got the Boy” blares on the pickup radio reflecting on the passage of time without resentment: “She got the future, I … Continue reading Winter Day in Nebraska
Revelation 3:8 has been my go-to verse for a couple of years now. It leapt off the page of my Bible one day and has held a place in my awareness. It urges me to keep looking, to see how big God is and all the ways the Great Love manifests in the world around me. It is God’s invitation to keep seeking new ways … Continue reading Open, Open, Open
Today I am featuring a guest writer, Carol DeSchepper. She has a talent for finding great spiritual writings and adding her own thoughtful responses. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. I must admit I rarely give Groundhog Day a second thought. Whether it’s 4 weeks or 6 weeks or 8 weeks from now when ‘winter ends’, it remains cold and … Continue reading Enduring Late Winter
This morning I heard the story of David and Goliath on the wonderful app Pray as You Go. It seems obvious that the corona virus is the Goliath we need to slay. We have been using our best weapons against it. But what has been happening in the ranks? Argument over strategy. Polarization. Broken trust. I am reminded of the Scripture that tells us not … Continue reading Smooth Stones
saint sinner seeker 