Got that feeling in my body*
Ugly words hurt.Clashing colors make me nauseous.Stripes with plaid make me dizzy. Grim news turns my stomachLoss twists my heart.A word stabsA look penetratesCriticism batters. Thoughts and experiences are, for me, physical.I quite literally feel your pain. Yet,Accept me and my heart bursts!Kindness enfoldsCaring caressesEyes that listen warm meEars that see startle me. My body […]
First we must stand
Walking, it’s as natural as breathing. Put one foot in front of the other. Move it on out. It wasn’t always this way. Once, we couldn’t hold our head up, couldn’t roll over couldn’t sit without toppling couldn’t rock on all fours could not even crawl. Imagine, there was a time when we were stuck in […]
Broken
Father, sometimes it feels like I am army-crawling through life. Under barbwire, through the mud, dodging bullets and ducking enemy fire through the searing onslaught. Even when I see no way out, you have provided one. Show me the way through. Help me learn to trust you in life’s toughest places. Amen This is the […]
The Third Dimension
Lord, you pull me upward as circumstances pull me outward. Lo, there is a third dimension. Downward. Bent in silence. Focus me there. Where I am Deeply dependent on you.
Restorative Circle: Listening in Love
There’s just something about sitting in a circle. Where everyone faces everyone. There’s no front row and no back row. No first and no last. In fact, no ordination at all. Everyone is equal and opposite the other — literally. This was my first experience with what Alta Vista Elementary School calls a “restorative circle.” […]
On Eagles Wings
“It’s a fun run. We all have to do it,” Jaylin told me. “You should come.” So I did come, not to run but to watch. Not just to watch but to help. On my arrival, they were breaking for lunch, so I set out along the course marked out, intending to pick up random […]
Made to Notice
We notice when something is changing, not when it has changed. We are made this way. To attend to the acceleration, not the constant speed To catch the approach of a predator, not the constant sway of the grass To feel the crawl of a spider, but not the constant warmth of the sun We […]
When Hide and Seek Becomes Here I am
Ready or not, here I come!” I always loved hearing those words because that’s when the fun really began. I knew all the best hiding places around our house. In the stairwell, behind the bushes, between the pine trees, by the swing set… What made them good was this: you could see the seeker, but […]
Doing the Shuffle
I walked past the shuffleboard courts this morning. Empty, as they have been since I arrived and as I trust they will be when I leave. It’s an old person’s game, I guess. No cue’s or disks around or I might have taken a turn, just to see if I could still gauge the distance […]
Suddenly Still
Stillness is a shock to the system. The screeching of tires, the squealing of wheels, the swerving and maneuvering to get out of the way. When the smoke clears and the dust settles, it takes a bit of righting to find balance. Turns out, forward momentum can keep you upright through pretty much any squall, but stillness…now […]