Firm Outside, Flexible Inside
Inflexible, rigid, immovable, carved in stone…There’s a place for these, but in me is not that place. I’m meant to give. My body says so. I’m meant to be flexible, able to bend against the storms of life and not snap. I’m meant to be supple, easily folded, twisted and worked into shape. I’m meant to be […]
The Nesting Tree
You would have loved my mom. She was diligent and dutiful, industrious and ingenious, fashionable and fastidious, a loyal friend and devoted spouse. If there were room-moms back then, she would’ve been a great one. If there were sports-Mom awards given, she would have been well-decorated. She cooked a mean pot roast, prepared an awesome peach pie and baked chocolate […]
Join Your Life, Already in Progress
“I have so many choices facing me right now, Guiding God…I listen for your voice. I listen with an open heart. I trust that you will guide me to the right choices. In this trusting, I am going to move out in faith and open the doors in front of me… Ever present God, the […]
Life is a Workshop
“Life is a workshop; the crafting of our soul is our own work to do. We are all pieces of creation, of clay, into which we are asked to breathe life. It is ours to work that clay.” ~ Dee Dee Risher in The Soulmaking Room Work that clay… Not, take that clay to the gym and […]
What is Silence?
Silence. not, “Quiet!” not, “Enough already!” not, “Shut the ____ up!” These leave a ringing in the ears that deafens. Dulls the senses. Obliterates the moment. Castigates the quiet. Silence, you are not this. Silence, neither are you the quiet left by absence, which shutters the senses. You ring hollow, mournful, empty. Silence, you are […]
Can we hurry patiently?
Patience is an ever present alternative to the mind’s endemic restlessness and impatience. Scratch the surface of impatience and what you will find lying beneath it, subtly or not so subtly, is anger. It’s the strong energy of not wanting things to be the way they are and blaming someone (often yourself) or some thing […]
How would life look if we became the change we want to see?
How quick are we to fantasize how life might be, if only what we wished for were true. If life were different, I would be successful. If life were different, I would be recognized. If life were different, I would be loved the way I want to be loved. If life were different. What might […]
Putting Practice into Play is Easier and Harder than We Think
I was told “Practice makes perfect,” so my defiant younger self quipped, “Practice makes perfect, but no one’s perfect, so why practice?” That was a) to hide my fear of being imperfect, b) to distract people from seeing all the practicing I was doing and c) to excuse myself in case that practice didn’t work. (and […]
Did the Resurrection really happen?
Does it matter if the Resurrection actually happened? This was the question we considered in my adult Sunday School class at a church I used to belong to. I was a regular at Sunday school, where we considered issues of faith and its practice as a matter of course. Sunday school was organized and led […]
Don’t Save Yourself for Later, You Won’t Keep
Spotted on Inward/Outward… Guidelines Here’s what you need to do, since time began: find something—diamond-rare or carbon-cheap, it’s all the same—and love it all you can. It should be something close—a field, a man, a line of verse, a mouth, a child asleep— that feels like the world’s heart since time began. Don’t measure much […]