Am I gorging on grace?
A beautiful mosaic of blue descends on my bird feeder and begins gorging himself on the suet. Pulling great mouthfuls, he swallows, scattering whatever doesn’t fit in his beak all over the ground. Wasteful, ugly, unappreciative bird. Go away! Let someone else have a turn! I sit and watch through my kitchen window. We have […]
Be-longings, not belongings
I have a new belonging; I am the happy owner of a brand new Ford Escape in “deep impact blue.” It’s beautiful. Rides like a dream compared to the “moves like a tank” that I was driving. And that is what matters to me. How it rides and whether it will get me where I […]
Spirit of the Living God, an exercise
I wonder if the people who drive by my house think I am crazy. I am out on the front porch with my exercise band, stretching it, lifting it, pulling, twisting, raising, lowering. Sometimes I sing “Spirit of the living God” out loud; sometimes I just hum it to myself. It probably just looks like […]
Holy Hydration
“Do you think you pray enough?” That was the question posed by a blogger on our church blog. I was stopped dead in my tracks. How in the world can you quantify prayer?! Measure it in minutes? Prayer is a living thing. It has no boundaries. Certainly none that humans can lay down. It’s beginnings […]
Where life gets real, there is always hope
We lost a young man in our church last Tuesday afternoon. He died as the result of a tragic accident. Suddenly. On the day he graduated from 8th grade. He was a good kid but not perfect – an adventurous boy, a reliable friend, a brother you could count on, a loving son. He regularly […]
Hidden Writing
Displaced from my usual writing spot at my desk and even my special springtime spot on the front porch, I settled (grudgingly) onto a picnic table on the back porch. The writing surface is a bit grimy and uneven so I brought out some lovely place mats to smooth over my discomfort. No go. When […]
Pain AND Gain: On the Edge of Injury AND Glory
I got to spend my mornings last week with the First Ladies of soccer, the Washington Spirit. I have never seen that kind of soccer quite so up close and personal. These women are phenomenal. Just standing by, I can hardly believe the power and accuracy and quickness of their ball drills and their small-sided […]
Stretch to Strengthen
No one really wants to be stretched. Especially, not when it goes beyond what feels comfortable. There’s a certain out of control feeling when someone is pulling me and I don’t have any say-so in the how-far-they-go-until-they-stop. If you have ever suffered an injury or undergone surgery and then rehabbed in physical therapy, you know […]
Let me love You like she loved me
One doesn’t just “get over” a love like Rosy. And I don’t mean the love I have for her. I mean the love she had for me. The way she looked at me, comforted me, wagged in greeting for me. Even when someone else was petting her, she would look around the room to see […]
Dear Rosy, I give you back to the Love from which you came
Everybody does it. Taking a break is part of life. Perhaps part of the human condition. Time away is rest, relief, recovery. But getting started again, now that’s the hard part. Because time off changes you. Especially when the break is final. On June 11th I said goodbye to Rosy, my sweet golden companion of […]